JEREMY HUNT will preside over the first all-out strike by doctors in the history of the NHS after a massive 98 per cent of junior staff voted to walk out in protest over new contracts.

Yesterday’s ballot result smashed the new strike thresholds proposed in the Tories’ Trade Union Bill, with 76 per cent of junior doctors returning their ballot papers.

Emergency care only will be provided for 24 hours from the morning of Tuesday December 1, followed by full walkouts between 8am-5pm on the two following Tuesdays.

But the arrogant Mr Hunt refused to return to conciliation talks at Acas, saying only that the government would not rule out further negotiations at a later stage.

Embarrassingly, a spokesman for NHS England then appeared to undermine him.“Given the potential risks to patients, the right answer is instead for negotiations to resume between the junior doctors and NHS employers,” she said.

Mr Hunt also branded the decision to strike “damaging” and accused the British Medical Association, which has never led its members out on strike before, of trying “to scare doctors.”

But the BMA said the Health Secretary was only “entrenching himself even further” and should ditch the attitude.

“We regret the inevitable disruption that this will cause,” said BMA chairman Dr Mark Porter.

“But it is the government’s adamant insistence on imposing a contract that is unsafe for patients in the future and unfair for doctors now and in the future, that has brought us to this point.”

The dispute centres around Mr Hunt’s botched blueprint for a “seven-day NHS.”

Tories plan to reclassify “unsocial” hours, for which doctors can claim extra pay, as part of the standard working week.

Currently, medics get their wages topped up for shifts between 7pm and 7am during the week and at weekends.

The new plans would limit this premium rate to from 10pm during the week and from 7pm on Saturday nights.

Yet doctors say they are already stretched to the limit, often working scores of extra hours unpaid every month.

The Medical Practitioners’ Union (MPU), which is part of general union Unite, said that the BMA vote represented a “failure of the government’s treatment of another part of the NHS workforce which it fails to value.”

MPU chair Dr Ron Singer said: “We will enlist support from other NHS members of Unite and other unions to offer their help within the law to work locally with BMA reps.

“We will exert whatever pressure we can to bring the government to its senses — drop the threat of imposition, open all aspects of the proposed contract to serious negotiation and thereby bring a swift end to this dispute.”

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis linked the dispute to a crisis in morale among the wider workforce in the health service.

“Pay austerity has meant that health workers rely on unsocial hours payments just to boost their shrinking salaries and make it through the month,” he said.

The GMB’s Rehana Azam added: “NHS staff are the backbone of the NHS yet the secretary of state continues to pick unnecessary fights with them.”

Emilie’s story

Emilie, 39, is a doctor in a north London hospital with 14 years’ service.

We’re taking action because the proposed contract is really unsafe and unfair. Junior doctors are giving a strong signal, shouting with our loudest voice, but the government isn’t listening. It’s making me really sad. I love my job and I never thought I’d end up at this impasse. But the BMA tried its best to have meaningful negotiations.

The seniors at my hospital have expressed the utmost support for the junior doctors, because they’ve realised the proposed terms aren’t fair. Our mission is patient care — not politics.

Nadia’s story

Nadia has been a junior doctor for 11 years

We already have a seven-day NHS: I’ve worked nights and weekends for as long as I can remember. But the government wants to [make non-urgent services available at weekends] without investing in staffing and resources.

We already come in earlier than our contracted hours, and a lot of the prep is not factored in [to doctors’ pay]. And it feels like that’s becoming more and more the norm.

Morale in general has been dipping quite a lot, and when the new contract came in it was, for many of us, the final straw.

It’s like being beaten when you’re already down.