Streeting warns NHS faces challenging few days as doctor strike begins
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Resident doctors in the West Midlands begin strike over pay
Walkout by resident doctors began at 07:00 BST on Friday and is set to last until 30 July. At New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton and Cannock Chase Hospital, bosses said there had been 236 appointment cancellations for patients. Dr Brian McCaig, chief medical officer, said they had been through a “number of strikes before”
The walkout by resident doctors began at 07:00 BST on Friday and is set to last until 07:00 BST on 30 July.
At New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton and Cannock Chase Hospital, bosses said there had been 236 appointment cancellations for patients, 110 of which were operations.
Consultants and senior doctors are covering for resident doctors, who are striking for the 12th time over pay
Dr Brian McCaig, chief medical officer, said they had been through a “number of strikes before” and the hospital needed to prioritise emergency medical care.
“In terms of planning, we need to first of all prioritise urgent and emergency care and obviously time critical work, such as cancer work and priority operations,” he said.
“Once we’ve been able to cover those, we then see what activity we can continue with but inevitably, with the industrial action we do need to cancel some activity.”
One patient, Dave Williams, who was admitted to the hospital with heart problems, said he agreed with the resident doctors strike.
“They’re not paid enough,” he told the BBC.
“I mean nurses… and doctors, if they all downed tools totally and said right we want more money, the government would have to pay them.”
Joseph Kabila: Former DR Congo president on trial for treason and murder in Kinshasa
Former Congolese president on trial for treason in a military court in Kinshasa. Joseph Kabila is accused by the current president of masterminding the M23 rebels. He denies the charges, did not appear at the hearing and has asked to be tried in absentia. The 53-year-old led DR Congo for 18 years, after succeeding his father Laurent, who was shot dead in 2001. He handed power to President Félix Tshisekedi following a disputed election in 2019, but they later fell out. He arrived in the rebel-held city of Goma, in eastern DR Congo, from self-imposed exile in South Africa in May. He has rejected the case as “arbitrary” and said the courts were being used as an “instrument of oppression”
Image source, AFP via Getty Images Image caption, Joseph Kabila is accused by the current president of masterminding the M23 rebels
Author, Natasha Booty Role, BBC News Author, Barbara Plett Usher Role, BBC News, Africa correspondent
25 July 2025, 12:42 BST Updated 38 minutes ago
The treason trial of the former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, has begun in a military court in the capital, Kinshasa.
He also faces other charges, including murder and rape, linked to his alleged support for M23 rebels – who control a large part of the mineral-rich east of the country. He denies the charges, did not appear at the hearing and has asked to be tried in absentia.
Kabila’s successor, President Félix Tshisekedi, has accused him of being the brains behind the rebels.
The ex-president has rejected the case as “arbitrary” and said the courts were being used as an “instrument of oppression”.
After several hours, Friday’s trial was adjourned to the end of the month, following a request by prosecutors for extra time to review documents.
A ceasefire deal between the rebels and the government was agreed last week, but fighting has continued.
Kabila had been living outside the country for two years, but arrived in the rebel-held city of Goma, in eastern DR Congo, from self-imposed exile in South Africa in May.
Pointing to overwhelming evidence, the UN and several Western countries have accused neighbouring Rwanda of backing the M23, and sending thousands of its soldiers into DR Congo. But Kigali denies the charges, saying it is acting to stop the conflict from spilling over onto its territory.
In May, the upper house of the legislature lifted Mr Kabila’s immunity as senator for life to allow his prosecution on charges that include treason, murder, taking part in an insurrectionist movement, and the forcible occupation of Goma.
The 53-year-old led DR Congo for 18 years, after succeeding his father Laurent, who was shot dead in 2001. Joseph Kabila was just 29 at the time.
He handed power to President Félix Tshisekedi following a disputed election in 2019, but they later fell out.
In a now-deleted YouTube video released in May, Kabila lashed out at the Congolese government calling it a “dictatorship”, and said there was a “decline of democracy” in the country.
At the time the Congolese government spokesperson, Patrick Muyaya, rejected Kabila’s allegations, saying he had “nothing to offer the country”.
In anger at Friday’s trial, Ferdinand Kambere – a close ally of Kabila who served in his now-banned PPRD party, accused the government of “double standards”. He said it was too soft in its peace deal but too hard on Kabila, adding that the trial was a way to exclude Kabila from the country’s politics.
Another Kabila stalwart – Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary – reportedly said a guilty verdict was a forgone conclusion and that the trial was little more than “theatre”.
But as the trial opened, Congolese Deputy Justice Minister Samuel Mbemba had stern words for any detractors.
“Justice does not negotiate, it does not join in dialogue. The calendar for justice is different from the political calendar.”
Additional reporting by Damian Zane and Cecilia Macaulay
More BBC stories on DR Congo:
Image source, Getty Images/BBC
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.
Striking doctors tell of ‘poor pay’ and difficult working conditions
Around 30 doctors and supporters gathered outside Leeds General Infirmary on Friday morning, waving placards and cheering as passing cars beeped horns in support. Resident doctor Kelly Johnson said Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s opposition to the strikes felt like “a slap in the face” “I get depressed if I’m not in work. My heart is always at work,” she said. Dr Costache said she left Romania due to the poor health infrastructure and lack of investment. “We need to value those doctors and restore their pay to what it was 15 years ago,’ said retired nurse Dave Bell, a member of Keep Our NHS Public. ‘Without these doctors I would be dead. They are looking after people after people are sick, I am very angry about it,’ said 72-year-old Jo Irwin, who was attending London hospital for a blood test before a surgery for a kidney transplant.‘I am fully behind the strikes and the public should be as well, and the unions should be too,’ said another.
Resident doctor Kelly Johnson said Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s opposition to the strikes felt like “a slap in the face”.
Speaking outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London, where she works, she told the PA news agency: “Every union has the right to strike. It feels like a slap in the face to say that we are doing something that is unjust.
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“Just because we’re doctors doesn’t mean we can’t come out and strike and protest for what we think is right.
“When doctors decide to take strike action it’s always portrayed as though we’re being selfish, but we’re here as a body to help the public day in, day out, to work hours that don’t even end sometimes.
“Here we are just trying to get what’s right for us so we can do our best to serve the public.”
Around 30 doctors and supporters gathered outside Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) on Friday morning, waving placards and cheering as passing cars beeped horns in support.
Cristina Costache, who is a paediatrics registrar at LGI and a PhD student, said: “It’s a very difficult decision to make always, because I love my job and that’s the reason I went into it. I get depressed if I’m not in work. My heart is always at work.
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“But I also care about my colleagues and my profession.
“I’m seeing more and more gaps as registrars. There’s always a gap on the paediatric registrar rota. We end up having to cover the job of another paediatric registrar, of even two other paediatric registrars.
A picket line outside Leeds General Infirmary as resident doctors stage a strike (Dave Higgens/PA)
“My SHOs (senior house officers) also have gaps, so I sometimes have to cover their job as well as my registrar job. That’s not safe and that’s not okay.
“The reason that happens is that they’re poorly paid. If you’re poorly paid, why would you want to come in on your free time when you know you’re going to be on nights the next day and then so three or four nights in a row?”
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Dr Costache said she left Romania due to the poor health infrastructure and lack of investment.
She said: “It’s really sad to have seen in the last nine years, since being here, how the NHS is heading that way. Hence, I’m a trade unionist because I feel like I want to tell people, please don’t do what has happened there.
“It can be really scary and really bad, and you don’t want to be in that place.”
Dave Bell, a retired nurse and member of the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, stood in solidarity with striking doctors outside St Thomas’ Hospital.
“Britain’s doctors are the backbone of our NHS,” he said. “If you ask anyone who’s been to a hospital, they’ll tell you those staff work their socks off.”
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He called for urgent “pay restoration”, adding: “We need to value those doctors and restore their pay to what it was 15 years ago.”
But he acknowledged the difficulty of strike action within NHS teams.
“I took strike action once when I was a nurse – of course it causes tensions. You’re working hard, and if medical staff walk out, it gets even harder for those still in.”
Despite this, he said unity is crucial, adding: “In the long run, people have got to work together – the unions too. It can be overcome.”
Some patients at St Thomas’ Hospital voiced their support for the doctors.
Jo Irwin, 72, who was attending the London hospital for a blood test before surgery for a hernia, said she had “no hesitation” in backing the walkout.
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“I am fully behind the strikes and the public should be as well,” she said.
“Without these doctors I would be dead. They are looking after sick people. I am very angry about it.
“They should get all the money they want and more than (Prime Minister Sir) Keir Starmer and his cronies.”
Mohammed Dinee, 42, from Brixton, also backed the industrial action after being admitted recently with back pain.
“Today I had a physiotherapy appointment, it was fine, no complaints,” he said.
“But I got admitted the other day for back pain – you could feel it. It was difficult to get an MRI scan.
“They’re strained, being inside St Thomas’ you can see it. I fully support them.”
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Speaking outside the Bristol Royal Infirmary, Dr Fareed Al-Qusous, 26, a year three academic foundation doctor, said resident doctors had “the most severe pay erosion compared to all the other sectors”.
“The private sector’s pay has caught up with 2008 levels, the finance sector has gone up by 4%, whereas doctors’ pay has gone down by 21%,” he said.
“We want to be realistic about things, we want to be pragmatic, we don’t want it all in one year, we don’t want it over two years.
“We want a multi-year pay deal, a guarantee that pay will be restored.”
Streeting warns NHS faces challenging few days as doctor strike begins
NHS wants to keep non-urgent services running, with patients urged to attend appointments unless told they are cancelled. The strike by thousands of resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, began on Friday after the government and British Medical Association (BMA) failed to reach an agreement over pay. Government sources say the ball is very much in the BMA’s court and they still will not negotiate on pay. The BMA says, despite a 5.4% average pay rise this year following a 22% increase over the previous two years, pay is still down by a fifth since 2008 once inflation is taken into account. GP surgeries will open as usual, and urgent care and A&E will continue to be available, alongside NHS 111, NHS England said. Members of the public have been urged to still come forward for NHS care in England during the walkout. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urged resident doctors not to follow their union down the “damaging road” of strike action before the strike.
19 minutes ago Share Save Nick Triggle Health correspondent Share Save
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The NHS is facing a challenging few days during the doctors strike in England as it attempts to keep as many services as possible running, said the health secretary. Wes Streeting said while it was not possible to eliminate disruption from the five-day strike by resident doctors, it was being kept to a minimum. The strike by thousands of resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, began on Friday after the government and British Medical Association (BMA) failed to reach an agreement over pay. The NHS wants to keep non-urgent services running, with patients urged to attend appointments unless told they are cancelled. The BMA has warned staff are being stretched too thinly.
But the union has started to agree to requests for doctors to come off picket lines and work in hospitals experiencing the most pressure. A doctor has been told to return to work at Nottingham City Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit over the weekend. And the BMA has granted a request from Lewisham Hospital in south London for two anaesthetists to work on Saturday. Before this strike, the 12th since March 2023, the union had only granted five requests for doctors to return to work, known as a derogations. No official figures have been released yet on the impact of the latest strike, but some hospitals are reporting more than 80% of their non-urgent work is still being done. Senior doctors are covering for resident doctors. Members of the public have been urged to still come forward for NHS care in England during the walkout. GP surgeries will open as usual, and urgent care and A&E will continue to be available, alongside NHS 111, NHS England said.
Writing in the Times before the strike, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urged resident doctors not to follow their union down the “damaging road” of strike action. Despite the efforts being put in by NHS leaders, he said the walkout would cause a “huge loss for the NHS and the country”, as he criticised the British Medical Association (BMA) for “rushing” into strikes. Sir Keir said the walkouts threatened “to turn back the clock on progress we have made in rebuilding the NHS over the last year”. Streeting said the government would “not let the BMA hold the country to ransom” and that it was doing “everything we can to minimise the risk to patients”. He conceded disruption could not be “eliminated” and he and the prime minister were “angry” on behalf of patients and other NHS staff still working. Previous walkouts have led to mass cancellations of operations, appointments and treatments. More than one million were cancelled during resident doctor strikes in March 2023 and routine care was cut by half at some hospitals. But this time NHS England has ordered hospitals to only cancel non-urgent work in exceptional circumstances.
Doctors in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not part of the pay dispute. Talks between the government and the union have been focused on non-pay issues, such as exam fees, working conditions and career progression, after Streeting had said pay was not open to negotiation. There are currently no plans for more talks but this could change once the current strike action is over. Government sources say the ball is very much in the BMA’s court and they still will not negotiate on pay. The BMA says, despite a 5.4% average pay rise this year following a 22% increase over the previous two years, pay is still down by a fifth since 2008 once inflation is taken into account. During their first foundation year after finishing a medical degree, resident doctors in England now earn a basic salary of £38,831. In the second year, this rises to £44,439. Salaries exceed £73,000 by the end of training. Medics are often expected to work night shifts, weekends and longer hours for extra pay. These top up their earnings by more than a quarter on average. BMA resident doctor co-leaders Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: “Resident doctors are not worth less than they were 17 years ago. “Restoring pay remains the simplest and most effective route toward improving our working lives. “Mr Streeting had every opportunity to prevent this strike, but he chose not to take it.”
EPA/Shutterstock Doctors and BMA members began the strike action on Friday across England, gathering outside hospitals with placards
While the majority of resident doctors work in hospitals, some GP practices and community services could also be affected. Resident doctors represent nearly half the medical workforce. Some patients have been affected. Hassnain Shahid, 32, from Bradford, said his three-year-old daughter had her lung surgery on Monday cancelled. She has a rare lung condition which means a cold is a serious risk to her health. “It’s been an emotional rollercoaster. It’s very frustrating,” said Hassnain.
Striking doctors’ leaders heckled at Government talks before Wes Streeting hits out
Striking doctors’ leaders heckled at Government talks before Wes Streeting hits out. Health Secretary accuses striking doctors of negotiating in bad faith. Warns ‘they have seriously underestimated me’ and risks bringing union into ‘disrepute’ Comes as new footage shows co-chairs Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt being heckled – with a passer-by shouting “bol****s to ya” Mr Streeting said union leaders had given the impression they were happy with how negotiations had progressed and he had believed they would pause industrial action for more talks. Resident doctors staged 11 strikes, over 44 days, during 2023 and 2024. After Labour came to power in 2024 they voted to accept a pay deal worth 22.3% on average over two years. Doctors say this is only one or two percentage points above inflation and say their salaries are down a fifth in real terms since 2008. Poll shows previously strong public support for doctors’ strikes has halved from 52% a year ago to just 26%.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting accuses striking doctors’ leaders of negotiating in bad faith and warns ‘they have seriously underestimated me’
Wes Streeting has accused striking doctor leaders of bringing the wider trade union movement into “disrepute”.
The Health Secretary said the British Medical Association’s resident doctors committee co-chairs “have seriously underestimated me” after they walked out on last ditch talks to avert the five-day strike which started on Friday. It comes as new footage shows co-chairs Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt being heckled – with a passer-by shouting “bol****s to ya” – as they arrived at Parliament for talks a week earlier to discuss “creative solutions” such as reducing training expenses. The talks which started last Thursday eventually broke down on Tuesday.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting during a visit to an NHS centre managing strike cover and cancellations (Image: PA)
Mr Streeting said union leaders had given the impression they were happy with how negotiations had progressed and he had believed they would pause industrial action for more talks. He told the Mail that the officials “who sat in front of me either couldn’t carry their committee with them, in which case they’re weak, or have no intention of carrying their committee with them, in which case they’re misleading”. He said their behaviour risks bringing the wider trade union movement into “disrepute”.
Dr Ross Nieuwoudt and Dr Melissa Ryan speak to the media outside Portcullis House in Westminster last Thursday (Image: PA)
Resident doctors – those below the level of consultant and previously known as junior doctors – staged 11 strikes, over 44 days, during 2023 and 2024. After Labour came to power in 2024 they voted to accept a pay deal worth 22.3% on average over two years.
Their latest deal for 2025/26 consists of a 4% uplift plus £750 “on a consolidated basis” – working out as an average rise of 5.4%. Doctors say this is only one or two percentage points above inflation and say their salaries are down a fifth in real terms since 2008.
However polling shows previously strong public support for doctors’ strikes has halved from 52% a year ago to just 26%.
Co-chair Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, aged 29, had sounded positive about averting the strike (Image: PA)
The BMA resident doctor committee co-chairs spoke to assembled media before and after the first day of talks with Government last Thursday, when a passery-by shouted “b****cks”. After initial talks had finished, the co-chairs had sounded positive, saying there was a “window of opportunity” to prevent them going on strike after “constructive” discussions.
Co-chair Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: “We had an open and frank conversation. There was openness on both sides to discuss options to increase the value of being a doctor in this country. I think the fact that there was a genuine engagement, an exploration of these things at a high level, fills us with hope that in the next few days, potentially, we can find a way to avoid strikes.”
Dr Melissa Ryan says ‘we want to be paid fairly and we want an excuse to stay in the NHS’ (Image: Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
The Government had insisted it can not reopen the headline pay deal but was willing to negotiate on working conditions, such as pensions and how quickly doctors can progress through pay bands in their careers.
In words published today, Mr Streeting said: “I’m not going to let the BMA hold this country to ransom. They have seriously underestimated me. They’ve underestimated this Prime Minister. And they’ve underestimated this government.”
Speaking on a picket line on Friday, co-chair Dr Melissa Ryan, aged 45, insisted that their demand was simple – a commitment over a number of years to guarantee pay is restored to 2008 levels, as measured by the Retail Price Index metric.
Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoud wear pin badges of the crab emoji, which has been adopted by a faction of resident doctors to represent not taking a backward step in their industrial dispute (Image: Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
Dr Ryan said: “We want to be paid fairly and we want an excuse to stay in the NHS and do what we enjoy, which is looking after patients. Doctors should not need to subsidise the NHS with their wages.”
She argued that doctors have seen the worst pay erosion across the public sector before apologising to patients for the disruption caused by the strike. She said: “It really is disruptive – and I’m sorry for that. I apologise to patients every day because the NHS isn’t giving them the service they deserve.”
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“We’re under-doctored and understaffed. And that’s a political choice not to fund this properly. We need a government that will invest in the NHS, not only for me, but also for the patients.”