SCOTLAND’S care minister Maree Todd said today that she remains “hopeful” that a junior doctors’ strike will be called off.

Junior doctors in Scotland are due to begin a three-day strike next week from July 12 after 71 per cent of junior doctors rejected the Scottish government’s subinflation offer of 14.5 per cent over 2 years.

British Medical Association (BMA) junior doctors’ committee argue that the SNP-Green Scottish government’s pay offer fails to tackle what they have called “15 years of pay erosion” and a real-terms 23.5 per cent cut in pay since 2008.