LONDON – On Friday, thousands of doctors within England’s publicly funded healthcare system commenced a five-day strike due to a pay dispute, which the government warns will lead to widespread disruptions in patient care nationwide.

Junior doctors, who are in the early stages of their professional journey and are essential to the operation of hospitals and clinics, stood on picket lines at various hospitals following unsuccessful negotiations with the government.

The National Health Service has assured that emergency departments will remain operational, and efforts will be made by hospitals and clinics to maintain as many scheduled appointments as possible.

The doctors are seeking a pay raise to make up for what their union, the British Medical Association, says is a 20% real-terms pay cut since 2008.

Dr. Melissa Ryan and Dr. Ross Nieuwoudt, chairs of the union’s resident doctors committee, said “pay erosion has now got to the point where a doctor’s assistant can be paid up to 30% more than a resident doctor.”

The government says doctors have received an average 28.9% increase and it will not offer more, but is willing to discuss improved working conditions.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged the doctors to go back to work.

“Most people do not support these strikes. They know they will cause real damage,” he wrote in the Times newspaper.

“Behind the headlines are the patients whose lives will be blighted by this decision. The frustration and disappointment of necessary treatment delayed. And worse, late diagnoses and care that risks their long-term health,” Starmer wrote.

Health sector staff staged a series of rolling strikes over more than a year in 2023-24, seeking pay rises to offset the rising cost of living. The strikes forced tens of thousands of appointments and procedures to be postponed.

The strikes hit efforts by the National Health Service to dig out of an appointment backlog that ballooned after the COVID-19 pandemic and led to longer waiting times to see a doctor.

The strikes stopped after the Labour government elected in July 2024 gave doctors a raise, but the union held a new strike vote last month.