Bitter doctor strike begins

We won't be held to ransom, says Streeting

- BY MARTIN BAGOT Health Editor and SASKIA ROWLANDS

RESIDENT doctors began their five-day pay strike yesterday amid bitter recriminations.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting angrily accused them of bringing trade unions into disrepute by negotiating in bad faith, amid fears thousands of operations will be postponed.

He said he wasn't going to let them “hold this country to ransom”.

Dr Kelly Johnson, on the picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital in Central London, hit back, saying: “Every union has the right to strike. It feels like a slap in the face to say that we are doing something unjust”.