THE British Medical Association has announced that its first-ever joint strikes by junior doctors and consultants will take place later this month.

The union warned the walkouts will go on for a year if the government doesn’t restart pay negotiations in a major escalation of the industrial dispute.

Junior doctors have voted in favour to continuing strike action, renewing their strike mandate for another six months.

BMA’s junior doctors committee co-chairmen Dr Rob Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: “If [Rishi Sunak] does not come to the table with a credible offer on pay, he will face another six months of strike action.

“And another six months after, and after that, if he continues to ignore us.”

Junior doctors are set to join the second day of consultants’ planned 48-hour walk out on September 19, and will then continue their strike on September 21 and 22. Both consultants and junior doctors will then strike together on October 2, 3 and 4.

Junior doctors from the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association — the hospital doctors’ union — will also be striking across the same six days.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has ruled out further pay negotiations after the government said junior doctors would get pay rises of 6 per cent, along with an additional consolidated £1,250 increase, and hospital consultants will also receive 6 per cent.

Industrial action in the NHS has been ongoing since December 2022, with the number of inpatient and outpatient appointments cancelled now standing at 885,154.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive at NHS Providers, said co-ordinated action is a “serious escalation in the doctors’ industrial dispute,” adding: “This is going to be an unprecedented challenge for the health service.”

NHS Confederation described the joint strikes as a “nightmare scenario” and it is “inevitable that patient safety is at risk” as the NHS already faces “challenging winter” amid record waiting lists.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “The failure of the Prime Minister and his health secretary to sit down and talk to doctors has now led to the most severe strike action yet.”

Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, told the Morning Star: “This winter we have a dangerous combination of high energy bills, increased household debt levels, an NHS on its knees and forecasted cold weather.”