Kemi Badenoch has said the Conservatives will ban strikes by all NHS doctors if they return to power.
The Tory leader said her party would introduce legislation for minimum service levels and block doctors taking widespread industrial action, placing them under the same restrictions that apply to police officers, soldiers and prison officers.
Dr Tom Dolphin, chair of the British Medical Association trade union, called the proposal "a desperate intervention from a Conservative Party that spent nearly 15 years failing the NHS".
Thousands of resident doctors, formerly junior doctors, began a five-day strike on Friday after the government and BMA failed to reach an agreement over pay.