TORY ministers are “standing on the precipice of a historic mistake” by failing to stop national NHS strikes, the country’s biggest doctors’ union warned today.

Downing Street is “letting patients down” by refusing to reopen talks on another below-inflation pay offer for the current financial year, British Medical Association (BMA) chairman Professor Philip Banfield said. 

The result of the union’s national junior doctors’ strike ballot is expected tomorrow. If successful, the vote could soon see another 45,000 workers join nurses and ambulance staff downing tools across most of England and Wales.