Junior doctors in Britain have finally voted in favor of their first "all-out" strikes in the history of the National Health Service (NHS) in protest over pay and a new contract.

According to the British Medical Association (BMA), overwhelmingly 98 percent of almost 28,000 medical trainees favored industrial actions in a vote held on Thursday. Only two percent doctors were against the strikes slated for December 1, 8 and 16.

As planned, doctors will conduct a 24-hour strike on December 1, providing only emergency care. But they will on full walkouts on the later strike, threatening mass disruption to the NHS and the cancellation of outpatient clinics and non-urgent operations.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has condemned the move calling it “totally unwarranted”. Patient groups have also warned that lives could be put at risk. "This is the worst news for patients in the history of the NHS," said Roger Goss, of the campaign group Patient Concern.

"Whilst the views of doctors must be heard, the potential consequences of this strike for patients are severe". Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association said.

The National Health Service has 45,000 trainee doctors in England, a majority of whom belong to the BMA. The doctors are angry about new contracts to be implemented next year, which will see a cut in the number of shifts classed as "unsociable" and paid at the premium rate.

“In the UK, what is the real threat is the whole National Health Service. Here, we spend about nine and half percent of our GDP on the health service whereas the US spends double about 19%. But if you look at who lives longer, the French who have the health service similar to the UK are on the top. Here, the whole system is at threat as they try to privatize it and create a situation in which everybody has to pay and then 10% goes to the administration and shareholders of companies. That is the underlining issue that lies behind anxieties and problems occurring in the health service. One of those problems is the treatment of junior doctors who have very hard and stressful time in the later stages of their training a situation similar to nurses. And the government is treating the junior doctors as though they are industrial employees”, Rodney Shakespeare, Professor of Binary Economics in London told Press TV.

“The government is showing contempt of our key part of services, showing contempt for those who eventually be in charge of medical aspects and it’s also showing that it doesn’t understand what’s happening in the British politics at this moment. We will never agree to the privatization of the NHS in the same as we would never agree to the proposed attack on the working poor” he added.

Meanwhile, the Medical Practitioners' Union has backed the strikes. "The overwhelming vote of junior doctors to take strike action is a failure of the government's treatment of another part of the NHS workforce which it fails to value,” it said in a statement.

Junior doctors are qualified medical practitioners who are working while studying for postgraduate qualifications to become consultants or general practitioners. They make up around half of the medical workforce in Britain.

Last month, some 20,000 doctors hit the streets of London to denounce the proposed contract, which they say is aimed at cutting their pay and forcing them to work for more odd-hour shifts. They are also opposed to the government’s offer of 11-percent wage hike on normal shifts.

A recent online survey shows, a majority of junior doctors say they would prefer to leave the NHS, if the health secretary pushes through the proposal.

The poll has prompted warnings that such an exodus would leave the country’s health sector unable to function, given young medics’ key role in delivering care.