The BMA have said that the ‘fully expect’ their junior doctor’s strike mandate to be extended as they come to the end of further industrial action.

Junior doctors have been on strike since 7am on February 24 and will remain on strike until 11:59pm on February 28 in their long running dispute over pay and working conditions with the government.

The BMA has previously called for a 35 per cent pay rise for junior doctors which they say would make up for ‘15 years of below-inflation wage rises’ which has caused a ‘recruitment and retention crisis’ in the NHS.

The government has offered the junior doctors a pay deal which the union has said isn’t ‘credible’.

Junior doctors have received a pay rise averaging nearly 9 per cent this financial year.

The strikes have put further pressure on the NHS and will have had an impact on regional waiting lists and treatment times.

“The Government could have stopped these strikes by simply making a credible pay offer for junior doctors in England to begin reversing the pay cuts they have inflicted upon us for more than a decade,” Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said.

“The same Government could have even accepted our offer to delay this round of strike action to give more space for talks – all we asked for in return was a short extension of our mandate to strike.

“The fact that ministers have chosen strike action over what could have been the end of this year’s pay dispute is disappointing to say the least.

“This is the last action of our current mandate, but with the strength of determination shown by junior doctors across the country we fully expect to see that mandate renewed into the autumn.

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“There is no point in the Government delaying any further. The time to end this dispute is now.”

Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins said the BMA junior doctors committee had “refused to put our offer to their members” and called for more talks with the union.

She said they had been told the Government had been “prepared to go further than the pay increase of up to 10.3 per cent that they have already received”.