JUNIOR doctors in Devon are due to join the latest national walkout which starts tomorrow morning.

Operations and appointments could be postponed as this action is due to last four days.

Beginning tomorrow at 7am, the strike will finish at 7am on Saturday.

The doctors are calling for ‘full pay restoration to reverse the steep decline in pay faced by junior doctors since 2008/9’.

Pickets are due to be out at Torbay Hospital tomorrow. 

The British Medical Association says junior doctors have experienced a cut of more than 25 per cent to their salaries over the last 15 years. 

The union is calling for a 35 per cent pay rise to make up for below-inflation increases. 

It says the ‘lack of investment in wages by the Government has made it harder to recruit and retain junior doctors’, putting further pressure on the NHS and makes it harder to deliver care to the standards expected by professionals. 

No services are exempt from this week’s strike but the BMA says there are plans to protect patients, which could involve pulling junior doctors off the picket line if individual hospitals report lives are in immediate danger.

The NHS Confederation says patients are likely to see more of an impact than previous action because this is a four-day walkout and comes after the Easter weekend.

During last month’s strike, hospitals drafted in consultants to provide cover but it is estimated a quarter of them are on leave due to the Easter holidays.