The mandate for strike action has been extended (Picture: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)

Junior doctors in England have voted to extend their strike action for another six months.

Members of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) voted with 96.5% in favour to extend their strike mandate, which now takes them to January 4 of next year.

The HCSA has accused the prime minister of being a ‘barrier to progress’ during negotiations and says the government hasn’t moved substantially on an offer it tabled ‘months ago’, the Evening Standard reports.

The result comes as junior doctors from the British Medical Association are preparing to strike for five days from July 13.

Dr Naru Narayanan, HCSA president, has written a letter to Rishi Sunak asking him to ‘be brave’ and give government negotiators more flexibility to resolve the dispute.

He said: ‘The failure to negotiate meaningfully on the very real grievances of junior doctors is frankly unfathomable.

‘If we are to have any hope of a resolution, it seems clear that your government will need to move its position.

‘It will need to find the bravery to acknowledge and engage with the grievances of hospital doctors to seek a longer-term solution on pay erosion.’

Strikes could now continue until January 2024 (Picture: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)

Junior doctors are striking over pay (Picture: Guy Bell/Shutterstock)

Dr Narayanan added: ‘Junior doctors have today shown their resolve in a dispute which has already gone on too long but which due to government stubbornness could now stretch on into winter.

‘It has yet to move substantially on an offer it tabled months ago and it seems increasingly that the prime minister himself has emerged as a barrier to progress.

‘No-one in their right mind wants to see the impact on the NHS of these strikes, least of all doctors who have dedicated their career to caring for patients.

‘However, unless he changes his dogged insistence on trying to frame this dispute in terms of wider economics we will be condemned to further disruption and strikes.

‘We are urging Rishi Sunak and his government to be brave and soften their position so we can reach a longer-term settlement – one which satisfies the very real grievances of junior doctors who fear for staffing and services due to massive real-terms erosion of pay.

‘There is a path out of this dispute.’

‘The failure to negotiate meaningfully on the very real grievances of junior doctors is frankly unfathomable.’