South east NHS patients may see longer wait times as junior doctors walk out, striking for more money.

Junior doctors will be walking out for 72 hours starting at 7am today (Wednesday).

The walk out will last until Saturday, June 17 at 7am.

A spokesperson for east and south east London NHS Pathology Partnership said: “Some appointments, including surgeries, may need to be postponed or rearranged.

“Priority will be given to those patients with the most pressing health needs.”

If changes are made to an appointment arranged at one of the affected hospitals during the strike period, the patient will be contacted.

If a patient hears nothing, they should attend their appointment as normal.

The strike comes after three weeks of talks with the government failed to provide an outcome that NHS staff would accept.

Junior doctors were offered a pay rise of five per cent which, according to the British Medical Journal (BMU), was labelled “in no way credible” by the union.

BMA Junior Doctors tweeted that the offer was: “an insult to junior doctors in England.”

A junior doctor ranges from someone who has recently finished medical school to doctors with up to ten years of experience.

Junior doctors are calling for “pay restoration” after seeing their pay cut by an estimated 26.1 per cent since 2008.

 The BMA has said that the restoration would require a 35.3% pay rise.

In a statement about the strikes impact, East and South East London NHS Pathology Partnership said: “We will be adjusting our services and the way we staff them to ensure our quality of care is not compromised.”

They added that for those with a “less urgent need of care,” the wait may be longer than usual.  

Chairs of the British Medical Association have said spoken out about the need for a third round of strikes.

They said: “We made clear from the very start that talks required a recognition of the scale of our pay erosion.

“No such recognition has been forthcoming.

“We made proposals showing our willingness to be creative and work with the Government on how the reversal of our pay erosion could be achieved.

“In the end, however, the Government would simply not accept the fundamental reality of the pay cuts junior doctors have faced.

“This was made clear when they finally made their pay offer of 5%.

“Not only is that nowhere near addressing pay erosion over the last fifteen years, it would not even have matched inflation this year.

“We are not in these meetings to agree to have our pay cut further, and the government knows that.

“This was simply not a credible offer.”