Thousands of doctors across England began a five-day strike on Friday, protesting low pay and a shortage of training positions. The walkout, which started at 0700 GMT, marks the 13th strike by medical professionals since March 2023.
The action involves resident doctors those below consultant level who make up roughly half of the hospital workforce.
The Labour government’s health minister, Wes Streeting, criticised the strike, accusing the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), of escalating tensions. He stated that the union was “choosing confrontation over care.”
Streeting argued that the dispute had shifted away from fairness, writing in the Daily Telegraph, “This strike isn’t about fairness anymore. It’s about political posturing.”
He added that the government “cannot and will not move on pay, especially not after a 28.9 per cent pay rise over the last three years and the highest pay award across the entire public sector in the last two.”
The BMA, however, insists that doctors still require a 26 per cent pay rise to restore their salaries to the real value they had 20 years ago.
The union is also pushing for more training posts, noting that in some cases more than 30,000 doctors compete for just 10,000 training slots, which are essential for progressing to consultant level.
Due to the limited positions, many doctors are left without permanent roles after years of medical training.
The UK continues to grapple with a prolonged cost-of-living crisis, triggering widespread strikes across various sectors. Teachers, nurses, ambulance crews, lawyers, train staff, and border workers have all taken industrial action over the past three and a half years.
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