UK health minister vows to prevent renewed doctors' strikes

Britain’s health minister Wes Streeting said he would do everything he could to prevent further strikes by hospital doctors who returned to work on Monday after a five-day walkout.

The union for qualified medical practitioners in England staged another five-day strike last week in a dispute over pay and working conditions during one of the busiest periods for the health service.

Streeting has been critical of the action, calling the doctors “self-indulgent, irresponsible and dangerous” in earlier comments as hospitals faced rising admissions due to a surge in flu cases.

He said in a statement on Monday that his door remained open to put an end to what he described as “these damaging cycles of disruption”.

“I do not want to see a single day of industrial action in the NHS in 2026 and will be doing everything I can to make this a reality,” he said, adding that talks with the British Medical Association (BMA) would resume early next year.

Jack Fletcher, the BMA’s chair, told Reuters the union wants “less name-calling and more deal-making” next year, urging the government to create new jobs and set out a multi-year plan to restore pay.

“Strikes were not inevitable in 2025 and they are not in 2026 either,” he said.

HARDEST WEEKS TO COME

The latest stoppage, which began on December 17, added pressure to an already stretched healthcare service after National Health Service England warned that hospitals were facing a “worst-case scenario” from a surge in cases of a virulent strain of flu.

Hospitalisations for flu in England soared by more than 50% in early December, reaching an average of 2,660 patients a day – the highest level of flu hospitalisations ever for this period. Health leaders have said there was still no peak in sight.

Streeting said the NHS had coped with the “double whammy” of strikes and rising flu cases thanks to staff efforts but warned that the hardest weeks of winter were still ahead.

The BMA – which represents the so-called resident doctors who make up nearly half of the medical workforce – has staged a series of walkouts in a pay dispute that started with the previous Conservative government.