Junior doctors will go on strike next week after talks with the government failed to reach an agreement.

They will only provide emergency care from 8am on Wednesday February 10 to 8am on Thursday February 11.

A full walkout that had been planned but was ultimately scrapped.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said talks had failed because of the ‘government’s continued refusal to put reason before politics’.

It added politicians had failed to agree ‘a fair solution for an already overstretched junior doctor workforce.’

The BMA previously suspended plans for 48-hour industrial action on January 26 on the basis that some progress was being made in the talks.

But the sticking point remains the time at which premium rates of pay kick in for doctors working weekends.

The government has made some concessions in a bid to break the deadlock with the BMA, drafting in Sir David Dalton in the hope of reaching an agreement.