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Junior doctors in England are to strike for five days in their long-running pay dispute, bringing a fresh wave of disruption to the NHS in the week leading up to the general election. Thousands of patients face having their care cancelled after the British Medical Association announced a strike from 7am on 27 June until 7am on 2 July. Voters go to the polls on 4 July .

The development will add to the pressure on Rishi Sunak, who has been accused of holding up a deal over pay, to urgently resolve the row. In a statement on Wednesday, the BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, said: “We made clear to the government that we would strike unless discussions ended in a credible pay offer. For more than 18 months we have been asking Rishi Sunak to put forward proposals to restore the pay junior doctors have lost over the past 15 years – equal to more than a quarter in real terms.



” They said that when they entered mediation with the government this month they did so under the impression that “we had a functioning government that would soon be making an offer. Clearly no offer is now forthcoming. Junior doctors are fed up and out of patience.

” Sunak still had an opportunity to show that he cared about the NHS and its workers, Laurenson and Trivedi added. “If during this campaign he makes such a public commitment that is acceptable to the BMA’s junior doctors committee, then no strikes need go ahead.” Health leaders expressed a.

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