British Medical Association

Junior and senior doctors in England will go on strike together for the first time, a medical association has said, in an escalation to a long-running dispute with the government over pay.

Strikes over pay have hit many sectors of the British economy over the past year with medical workers among those joining picket lines amid the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

Senior doctors in English hospitals are to stage industrial action for only the third time, forcing the cancellation of routine operations for patients, their union have announced. 

Consultant doctors will strike on July 20 and 21 to press the government for better pay - just after a five-day stoppage by more junior doctors.

Junior doctors in English hospitals went on strike again on April 6, withdrawing all but emergency care in their fourth walk-out in a bitter dispute with the government over working conditions.

More than 5,000 procedures and operations in the state-run National Health Service (NHS) have been postponed as a result of the 48-hour action, which began at 0700 GMT.