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Resident doctors in England have commenced a five-day strike, marking the 13th industrial action organized by members of the British Medical Association (BMA) amid a persistent pay dispute. The walkout started at 07:00 GMT on Friday and will continue until 07:00 on the following Wednesday, impacting both emergency and non-urgent medical services. Resident doctors—formerly referred to as junior doctors—constitute approximately half of the hospital medical workforce, placing considerable pressure on hospital operations. Despite this, NHS England has urged patients to continue attending scheduled appointments unless they receive specific instructions otherwise.
To maintain as many services as possible, NHS leaders aim to deliver 95% of non-urgent care, including procedures such as hip and knee replacements. This effort involves redeploying consultants and senior doctors who are not participating in the strike, as well as offering overtime to remaining medical staff. Approximately one-third of resident doctors do not belong to the BMA and will continue working during the strike period. Nonetheless, NHS England anticipates that the cost of managing the five-day industrial action, through additional staffing and overtime payments, will amount to around £240 million.
While attempts are being made to keep disruptions to a minimum, some patients have already experienced delays. Colette Houlihan, aged 68 and awaiting surgery to remove a benign tumor from her neck, had a pre-surgery appointment postponed from Monday to late December. Having faced two previous cancellations that she understood due to prioritization of more urgent cancer cases, Ms. Houlihan expressed her frustration at the current delay caused by the strike. She criticized the action for violating the medical ethical principle of “do no harm,” stating, “Striking causes harm by way of delaying procedures, taking senior doctors from their posts and causing chaos within the system.”
NHS England’s medical director, Professor Meghana Pandit, described the industrial action as both frustrating and disappointing, especially given the NHS is already under significant strain from an early rise in flu cases. She praised staff for their hard work during this challenging period. Meanwhile, BMA leader Dr. Tom Dolphin acknowledged the difficulty in sustaining key services during the strike, emphasizing that doctors are legally entitled to take industrial action and should not be pressured into working. He added that his members would only abandon their picket lines in the event of a major emergency, such as a mass casualty incident.
The ongoing strike follows strong public criticism from the Health Secretary, who condemned the BMA’s approach in unusually forceful terms. He accused the union of behaving like a cartel and holding the public and government to ransom. Despite recent pay increases totaling nearly 30%—which have raised average basic salaries for resident doctors to just over £54,000—the Secretary maintains a firm stance against further pay negotiations. Although a new proposal included coverage for expenses such as exam and membership fees and more specialty training places, the BMA rejected this offering. They argue that, once adjusted for inflation, resident doctors’ pay remains about 20% lower than it was in 2008. Additionally, the union has highlighted the challenge doctors face in securing specialty training positions amid a surplus of applicants, with over 30,000 competing for just 10,000 places this year. Dr. Emma Runswick, deputy chair of the BMA Council, stressed the need to resolve this bottleneck and to improve pay to retain doctors throughout their careers
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