Doctors strike 'will risk patients' lives'

PATIENTS on record waiting lists will die unnecessarily or suffer for longer if junior doctors go back on strike, experts warn.

- By Lucy Johnston SOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR

The threat of industrial action comes after Health Secretary Wes Streeting refused a British Medical Association demand for a 29% pay hike this year for resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors. They received a 22% pay rise last summer after the protesting medics walked out on 44 days between March 2023 and last July, leading to 1.5 million appointments and operations being cancelled.

Another above-inflation pay rise of 5.4% has been handed to them this year, significantly more than nurses and the rest of the public sector.

Yet the BMA leadership argued this was "inadequate" and vowed to strike until real-terms pay returns to 2008 levels.