Junior doctors and consultants will hold a joint strike for the first time in the history of the health service in what has been described as a “serious escalation” in their row with the Government over pay.
The co-ordinated industrial action is set to take place in September and October, the British Medical Association (BMA) said.
Consultants had already announced plans to walk out for 48 hours from Sept 19, and will be joined by their junior colleagues on Sept 20. Junior doctors will then continue their strike on Sept 21 and 22.
Both consultants and junior doctors will then strike together on Oct 2, 3 and 4.
Staff will work on a “Christmas day cover” basis for both spells of industrial action, meaning emergency care will continue to be provided.
It comes after junior doctors voted in favour of continuing strike action, with the BMA’s mandate on industrial action renewed for another six months.
The union has now told Rishi Sunak he has “nowhere to hide”.
Dr Rob Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairmen of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said: “Today, junior doctors across England are sending a single message, loud and clear to the Government: we are not going anywhere.
“We are prepared to continue with our industrial action, but we don’t have to - the Prime Minister has the power to halt any further action by making us a credible offer that we can put to our members. Refusing to negotiate with us and with our consultant colleagues is not the way ahead.
“Rishi Sunak now has nowhere to hide. There can be no more delaying, no more wasting time with impositions of pay deals, no more declarations that strikes must end before even stepping in the room with us.
“If he 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. He knows the stakes, he knows our ask and now he knows our resolve.”
Junior doctors from the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA), the hospital doctors’ union, will also be striking across the same six days.
Dr Naru Narayanan, the HCSA’s president,said: “The Government has tried burying its head in the sand. It has tried making unilateral declarations. It hasn’t tried the one thing that will actually resolve this dispute: good-faith negotiation.”
In July, the Government said junior doctors would get pay rises of 6 per cent, along with an additional consolidated £1,250 increase. Hospital consultants will also receive 6 per cent.
Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, has said there will be “no more negotiations on pay”.
He described the union’s latest announcement as “extremely disappointing” adding: “I know it will weigh heavily on the minds of their NHS colleagues and patients – both of whom are shouldering the brunt of the BMA’s relentless and now co-ordinated strike action.
“My door is always open to discuss how we can work together with NHS staff to improve their working lives, but this pay award is final so I urge the BMA to call an end to this callous and calculated disruption.”
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said Mr Sunak and Mr Barclay should negotiate with medics to end the pay dispute.
He 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.
“The risk to patients is intolerable and the blame for cancelled appointments, delayed operations and rising waiting lists lies firmly at the door of 10 Downing Street.”