England Resident Doctors Plan December Strike Over Pay, Jobs

Resident doctors in England, represented by the British Medical Association, announced plans on Monday for a five-day strike from December 17 to 22, intensifying an ongoing dispute over pay and job shortages in the National Health Service.

The action, set to begin at 7 a.m. on December 17 and continue through December 22, marks the latest escalation in a series of walkouts by resident doctors, who are in postgraduate training to become specialists or general practitioners. Previously known as junior doctors until a 2024 name change, they have staged 13 strikes since March 2023, including five-day actions in July and November of this year. The November walkout alone is estimated to have cost the health service around 300 million pounds.

Dr. Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's resident doctors committee, attributed the decision to the government's lack of progress on addressing a severe jobs crisis alongside proposed real-terms pay cuts. "With the government failing to put forward a credible plan to fix the jobs crisis for resident doctors at the same time as pushing a real terms pay cut for them, we have no choice but to announce more strike dates," Fletcher said in a statement. He...