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Why doctors are on strike again from today - and why the health secretary is so angry about it
Thousands of resident doctors are going on strike today, despite the government's pushback against further disruption in the NHS.
It marks the 13th such walkout since March 2023, with this industrial action lasting from 7am today until Tuesday. The health secretary has already refused to budge on demands for a pay uplift, while NHS health leaders have warned that continuing action could see frontline staffing, appointments and operations cut.
But the chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) defended the action and told Sky News that pay for medics is still "way down" compared with 2008. What are doctors striking for? In brief, it's about pay rises - the BMA is arguing that doctors need a 26% pay uplift to restore their earnings, once inflation is taken into account.
However, the BMA chair told Sky News the dispute is rooted deeper in years of pay erosion that have left resident doctors far behind other public sector workers. Speaking to Sky's health correspondent Ashish Joshi, Dr Tom Dolphin said: "When we started the dispute… the lowest level of the resident doctors were being paid £14 an hour.
"There were some pay rises over the last couple of years that brought that partly back to the value it should be at, but not all the way. "The secretary of state himself called it a journey, implying there were further steps to come, but we haven't seen that." The BMA has also warned doctors must not be called off industrial action to cover planned NHS work.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's resident doctors committee, even accused NHS managers of "emotionally blackmailing frontline staff". He said strikes "have not come out of the blue.
Amir Nisi
Creative and experienced content writer with 6+ years of experience lazy to create unique content strategy for News5 to turn website visitors into customers.
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