{"id":248245,"date":"2025-12-23T21:51:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/248245\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T21:51:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:51:25","slug":"doctors-in-england-start-five-day-walkout-during-flu-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/248245\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors in England start five-day walkout during flu surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Doctors in England began a five-day strike on Wednesday over pay and working conditions during a surge in flu cases and with no end in sight to an increasingly bitter dispute<\/a> with the government.The walkout is the latest in a series of strikes<\/a> this year by “resident” or junior hospital doctors, who say their pay has been eroded over more than a decade.<\/p>\n

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The government says it cannot afford to increase pay more than it already has, and health minister Wes Streeting has called the strikes “self-indulgent, irresponsible and dangerous”.<\/p>\n

HEALTH SERVICE ALREADY STRETCHEDThe strike adds pressure to a healthcare service that is already stretched. National Health Service England warned last week<\/a> that hospitals were facing a “worst-case scenario” from a surge in cases of a virulent strain of flu.<\/p>\n

“Staff will come together as they always do … but sadly more patients are likely to feel the impact of this round of strikes than in the previous two,” said Meghana Pandit, NHS England’s national medical director.<\/p>\n

Jack Fletcher of the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents resident doctors, said two issues were at stake: a jobs crisis, with qualified medics unable to secure positions, and pay.<\/p>\n

“We must value our doctors in this country,” he said at the picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London.<\/p>\n

“We saw more doctors taking the step to leave the profession last year than any in the last decade.”<\/p>\n

Streeting, however, said it was “ultimately a pay dispute”.<\/p>\n

“There’s just a gap – a very wide gap – between BMA expectations and affordability,” he told lawmakers on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

FLU YET TO REACH PEAK<\/p>\n

The BMA is seeking a 29% increase this year to restore pay to 2008 levels in real terms.<\/p>\n

Shortly after being elected last year, the Labour government agreed a 22% pay rise for doctors, in a bid to end a dispute that began under the previous, Conservative government.<\/p>\n

However, after being awarded another 5.4% rise this year, the conflict flared again.<\/p>\n

Public support for the strikes is relatively low, with a YouGov survey on December 12 showing that 58% of those surveyed were either somewhat or strongly opposed to the latest action.<\/p>\n

NHS England said there may be fewer doctors on duty than usual during the strikes, requiring staff to prioritise life-saving care. Some appointments will be rescheduled.<\/p>\n

Flu hospitalisations in England surged by more than 50% in early December, reaching an average of 2,660 patients a day – the highest ever for this period. Health leaders have said there was still no peak in sight.<\/p>\n

Reporting by Catarina Demony, Marissa Davison and Muvija M; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Paul Sandle and Aidan Lewis<\/p>\n

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Catarina is a UK-based breaking news correspondent. She previously worked as a multimedia journalist in Portugal and Spain, where she covered everything from elections to natural disasters. Catarina has previous experience in TV and local journalism, co-founded a project telling the stories of Portuguese-speakers living in London, edited a youth-led news site and worked for several NGOs. She recently produced a documentary about transatlantic slavery and its legacies in today’s society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Doctors in England began a five-day strike on Wednesday over pay and working…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[82545,82535,82549,96005,82776,82553,82536,96004,94004,82532,82711,82777,82547,82539,82557,82537,82540,82554,82552,82551,82544,124428,95999,18,55396,82520,82516,103276,45748,87209,135,475,474,87211,94704,19,95664,112955,17,3503,82565,85473,82508,102513,94003,84141,15170,82534,96595,82533,82518,84144],"class_list":{"0":"post-248245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-destafa","9":"tag-destcsa","10":"tag-destdnp","11":"tag-destef-business-world-at-work","12":"tag-destg","13":"tag-destgns","14":"tag-destlby","15":"tag-destolgrb","16":"tag-destoukdnm","17":"tag-destouktpm","18":"tag-destousesg","19":"tag-destpge","20":"tag-destpsc","21":"tag-destrast","22":"tag-destrbn","23":"tag-destreulb","24":"tag-destrnp","25":"tag-destrws","26":"tag-destrwsa","27":"tag-destucdptest","28":"tag-destuki","29":"tag-disp","30":"tag-efbusiness-world-at-work","31":"tag-eire","32":"tag-emea","33":"tag-europ","34":"tag-gb","35":"tag-gbe","36":"tag-gen","37":"tag-hea","38":"tag-health","39":"tag-health-care","40":"tag-healthcare","41":"tag-heca","42":"tag-humdis","43":"tag-ie","44":"tag-infdis","45":"tag-influe","46":"tag-ireland","47":"tag-job","48":"tag-mtpix","49":"tag-mtvid","50":"tag-pol","51":"tag-rhpiemployee-health","52":"tag-rsbilitigation","53":"tag-rsbiworker-rights","54":"tag-sustainable-business","55":"tag-topcmb","56":"tag-topicpharma-healthcare-healthcare-innovation","57":"tag-topnws","58":"tag-weu","59":"tag-wpay"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}