Resident doctors begin their thirteenth strike as the wage dispute continues in England

NHS bosses are aiming to keep almost all services running, as resident doctors begin a five-day strike in England.

The strike – the 13th strike by members of the British Medical Association in the long-running pay dispute – began at 07:00 GMT and continues until 07:00 on Wednesday.

Resident doctors – the new name for junior doctors – will come out of emergency and non-urgent care.

Hospitals will be under the most pressure, as resident doctors make up about half of the medical workforce. But NHS England said patients should attend appointments unless advised otherwise.

She said she wants 95% of non-urgent work, such as hip and knee operations, to continue.

The NHS aims to do this by redeploying and offering overtime to consultants and other senior doctors as well as drawing on those who have not gone on strike – around a third of resident doctors are not members of the BMA.

But this will come at a significant cost, with the NHS estimating that the five-day strike will cost £240 million.

Despite trying to keep services going, patients like Colette Houlihan, 68, are still facing postponements.

She was due to have a pre-operative appointment on Monday, but that has now been postponed to late December.

Ms Houlihan, from Cambridgeshire, who is waiting to have a benign tumor on her neck removed, said she had had to endure two cancellations already, but could understand that as she was told that patients with higher priorities needed to be seen.

“They could have gotten cancer. I didn’t mind that, but this is different.”

“I’m angry. By striking them they are ignoring the Hippocratic Oath – first and foremost, they are doing no harm.

She added, “The strike causes harm by delaying procedures, removing senior doctors from their positions, and creating chaos within the system.”

NHS England’s medical director, Professor Meghana Pandit, said it was frustrating and disappointing to have another round of industrial action at a difficult time for the NHS, with flu cases rising earlier than usual.

He added: “Despite this, staff across the NHS are working extremely hard to maintain care and reduce disruption.”

But BMA president Dr Tom Dolphin said keeping most services running would be “difficult”.

He said doctors have the legal right to strike and should not be “intimidated or coerced” into working.

He warned that his members would only leave the picket line in the event of a major emergency – such as a mass casualty.

The latest withdrawal comes after Health Minister Wes Streeting launched his strongest attack on the BMA.

Addressing a conference of health directors this week, he described the union as “morally offensive” and accused it of behaving like a cartel, trying to hold the public and government for ransom.

He said doctors had received generous pay rises over the past three years – worth around 30%, bringing average basic salaries to just over £54,000.

Talks between him and the union collapsed last week after that The BMA rejected a new offer to end the dispute.

Streeting maintained all year that he could not negotiate salary, but proposed a deal that would include incidental expenses such as examination fees and membership fees, along with increased specialist training places.

But the British Medical Association said that despite the pay rises, resident doctors’ wages are still a fifth lower than they were in 2008, once inflation is taken into account.

The union also warned that doctors are struggling to find jobs at a key stage of their training – between the second and third years when they begin specialist training.

This year, there were more than 30,000 applicants for 10,000 jobs at this stage, although some of them will be doctors from abroad.

Dr Emma Ranswick, vice-chair of the British Medical Association Council, told the BBC: “We need a solution to the jobs crisis, which represents a bottleneck for doctors who have lost permanent employment or are not working on a regular basis.”

“Then we need to be able to retain those doctors throughout their careers by paying them appropriately, and that means restoring wages.”