JUNIOR doctors are in their battle for decent salaries “for the long run,” their union warned today after the government insisted that there would be no improvement in its pay offer.

On Thursday, the government approved a 6 per cent pay increase for NHS staff recommended by the sector’s pay review body.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said today that the chance of more strikes was “very high” as the junior doctors remained on strike for the second of five days of planned action — reportedly the longest walkout in NHS history.

Consultants are due to go on strike when the junior doctors action ends on Monday night.

The BMA has refused to call off the stoppage following the government’s insistence that there will be no improvement in its proposal and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s claim that “no amount of strikes” will bring more negotiations.

The doctors are pushing for a 35 per cent pay rise to return their wages to the level of 10 years ago.

The proposed 6 per cent increase for junior doctors would also come with a one-off payment of £1,250.

More strikes are very likely, BMA council chairman Professor Philip Banfield said, “so I don’t believe that this is all over.

“I do believe that doctors are in this for the long run because we are seeing so much harm come to patients every day because of the underfunding of the NHS.”

Royal College of Emergency Medicine president Dr Adrian Boyle has estimated that up to 500 avoidable deaths occur every week because of delays in emergency care in hospital.