Thousands of junior doctors in the United Kingdom started a five-day strike early Friday after failed talks with the Labour government over a new pay deal.
Doctors stood on picket lines outside hospitals after Thursday’s last-minute negotiations ended without an agreement.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer pleaded with the doctors to reconsider, warning that the strike would put patients at risk.
“Launching a strike will mean everyone loses,” Starmer wrote in *The Times*. He added, “Our NHS and your patients need you. Lives will be blighted by this decision.”
The doctors, also called resident doctors, are those below consultant level. They said they had no other option after years of low pay.
Melissa Ryan and Ross Nieuwoudt, co-chairs of the British Medical Association’s resident doctors committee, said in a statement, “We’re not working 21 per cent less hard, so why should our pay suffer?”
They complained that their salaries have dropped by over 21 per cent in real value since 2008.
Although the doctors accepted a 22.3 per cent raise over two years in September, they still feel the pay does not match their workload.
Health Minister Wes Streeting also urged doctors to step back from the strike.
In a letter published in *The Telegraph*, Streeting wrote, “The government cannot afford to go further on pay this year.”
Last year’s doctors’ strikes led to thousands of cancelled appointments and treatment delays across the country. The new strike adds more pressure to the already struggling National Health Service.
