Junior doctors have announced an unprecedented four-day strike after pay talks broke down with Government.
A refusal to find a compromise means a 96-hour walkout will take place for 96 hours from 7am on April 11 and is expected to trigger hundreds of thousands more cancelled operations.
The British Medical Association said ministers “refused to accept that there is any case for pay restoration” as talks broke down after just one day.
Government sources claim junior doctors’ starting demand of a 35% rise was “unreasonable” and “unaffordable”.
Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMA junior doctor committee, said: “It is with disappointment and great frustration that we must announce this new industrial action.
“The Government has dragged its feet at every opportunity. It has not presented any credible offer and is refusing to accept that there is any case for pay restoration, describing our central ask as ‘unrealistic’ and ‘unreasonable’.
“Even yesterday they continued to add new unacceptable preconditions to talks instead of getting on and trying to find a resolution.
“We therefore have no confidence that without further action these negotiations can be successful.”
Government sources claim Health Secretary Steve Barclay told the British Medical Association to “reflect” on how they wished to proceed, adding that there is no point in further talks until they are willing to give ground.
NHS bosses in England now face the daunting prospect of the longest ever strike involving doctors at a time when it is still under "sustained pressure".
The BMA says junior doctors, who start on salaries of between £25,000 and £30,000, have seen real terms pay cut by 26.1% since 2008/09.
It says a 35% rise would take them back to the real terms pay they had in 2008.
The Government has put junior doctors on a multi-year contract lasting from 2019 to 2023, separate to the rest of the NHS workforce.
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It insists over the course of this contract junior doctors will have seen a 8.2% uplift, before inflation. It insists the end of the contract is the “appropriate time” to discuss pay.
However the BMA says the latest 2023 uplift is just 2% - at a time when annual inflation is above 10%.
Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson added: “This situation is entirely of the Government’s own making. We want to spend our time looking after patients, not on strike.
“But with an NHS buckling under a workforce crisis, and four in ten junior doctors looking to leave, we can’t stand by while our pay is further eroded by inflation and an intransigent Government.
“We are not going to stop until we are paid what we are worth, and if ministers don’t accept that when we tell them in person, we will have to tell them from the picket line.”
Around 60% junior doctors will be eligible to strike making up almost half of the medical workforce in England.
Shifts including in emergency departments will be covered by consultants and nurses meaning that much of the planned operations will have to be postponed.
NHSE’s chief strategy officer Chris Hopson said: “Today’s data shows more than nine in 10 beds were occupied, with more than 13,300 beds taken up by patients medically fit for discharge each day last week.
“They also show the sustained pressure on our services, with more than 77,000 patients taken to hospital by ambulance last week.”
