UK's health care systems to be hit 'severely' as junior doctors go on 'longest-ever strike'

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is expected to face yet another major disruption in providing medical services, as junior doctors, who make up 50% of the medical workforce, began a new round of strike action on Wednesday.

Junior doctors, members of the British Medical Association (BMA), are on strike for 72 hours across England over an ongoing pay dispute.

The strike began at 7:00 a.m. local time (0700GMT) on Wednesday and will last until 7:00 a.m. on Saturday.

The three-day action will be followed by a six-day full walkout on Jan. 3-9, a total of 216 hours of action which the BMA said will be the "longest strike in NHS history."

The BMA has said they aim to achieve full pay restoration to reverse the steep decline in pay faced by junior doctors since 2008-2009.

Ahead of the strike, NHS England warned of "severe disruption" at a time when services are "already under significant winter pressure."

Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said in a statement that these strike action will cause "huge disruption" to the NHS, with services already feeling the strain of winter pressure.

"When you factor in the Christmas and New Year break, these strikes will prolong that period of reduced activity and it also puts the health service on the back foot into the new year, which is a time where we see demand start to rise significantly," he added in the statement released on Tuesday.

According to the country's health service, in more than a full calendar year of action, strikes have seen more than 1.1 million inpatient and outpatient appointments rescheduled.