POVERTY pay and deteriorating working conditions are forcing junior doctors to take the “extraordinary” decision to strike so early in their careers, the workforce has warned.

Staff represented by the British Medical Association (BMA) launched another four-day walkout across England this morning – their fifth round of industrial action in recent months.

Some new doctors are taking to picket lines just days after starting their first NHS jobs.

Freshly graduated foundation year one doctors only started work last week. 

Tory Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay claimed that patients are “bearing the brunt of the impact of continuous strikes which are causing more appointments and procedures to be postponed.”

But he reiterated his refusal to reopen pay talks, claiming this year’s below-inflation 6 per cent rise — which followed nearly 15 years of falling take-home wages amid Tory austerity — was “fair and reasonable.”

London-based doctor Omolara Akinnawonu warned that many of her newly qualified colleagues are struggling to make ends meet and have taken the “extraordinary” decision to down tools to fight for future pay and working conditions.

“I don’t think many of us as students imagined that we would be having to take to picket lines but I think that it’s necessary because it’s safeguarding our present and also our future,” she said.

“Students go through medical school and you incur costs.

“The NHS bursary and student finance doesn’t really cover maintenance fees, so you’re making a loss and having to make those costs up, be it borrowing from family or student loans or using your overdraft.

“We graduated on the back foot and to arrive finally as a doctor to not receive a fair salary is not fair.”

Dr Raymond Effah from Luton said that he is already considering his future in the crisis-hit health service.

“You look at your pay packet and think to yourself, this just doesn’t quite hit the spot,” he said.

“Looking at the hours I’m doing, it just doesn’t quite make sense – the numbers don’t add up.

“A lot of the narrative around the strikes has been ‘don’t worry, when you’re consultant all of it will be fixed.’

“But consultants are striking too – I think that tells you everything about the state of being a doctor in the UK.”

Senior doctors — also represented by the BMA — will continue their long-running industrial action with strikes at the end of August and in mid-September.