Strikes ‘can't carry on indefinitely’: Streeting and BMA urged to agree to mediation

Credit: UK Parliament/CC BY 3.0 DEED/David Woodfall

By Claudia Tanner

Senior health officials have called for independent arbitration as resident doctors begin their 14th strike in three years in a long-running dispute over pay and training posts, with the NHS facing mounting winter pressures.

As the five-day strike began on Wednesday, 18 December, leading NHS organisations appealed to health secretary Wes Streeting and the British Medical Association, warning that without such intervention, industrial action could “drag on and on and on” during next year.