Resident doctors in England have begun five days of strike action after rejecting the government’s latest offer to resolve the long-running dispute over pay and jobs.

Axar.az informs, citing Guardian, the British Medical Association (BMA), and the health secretary, Wes Streeting, met on Tuesday in a final attempt to reach an agreement, but failed to do so.

It means that resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – will remain on strike until 7am on Monday.

The latest offer from the government would have increased the number of training places to enable early career doctors to start training in their chosen medical speciality, but not increased their pay for the current financial year.

Resident doctors, who make up about half of all NHS doctors, overwhelmingly rejected the offer in a BMA survey last week, with 83% voting against it on a 65% turnout. Of the 55,000 resident medics represented by the union, 35,107 took part.

The industrial action will be the 14th strike that resident doctors have staged since March 2023.