{"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":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"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":["post-248245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-destafa","tag-destcsa","tag-destdnp","tag-destef-business-world-at-work","tag-destg","tag-destgns","tag-destlby","tag-destolgrb","tag-destoukdnm","tag-destouktpm","tag-destousesg","tag-destpge","tag-destpsc","tag-destrast","tag-destrbn","tag-destreulb","tag-destrnp","tag-destrws","tag-destrwsa","tag-destucdptest","tag-destuki","tag-disp","tag-efbusiness-world-at-work","tag-eire","tag-emea","tag-europ","tag-gb","tag-gbe","tag-gen","tag-hea","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-heca","tag-humdis","tag-ie","tag-infdis","tag-influe","tag-ireland","tag-job","tag-mtpix","tag-mtvid","tag-pol","tag-rhpiemployee-health","tag-rsbilitigation","tag-rsbiworker-rights","tag-sustainable-business","tag-topcmb","tag-topicpharma-healthcare-healthcare-innovation","tag-topnws","tag-weu","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}]}}