LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP)—Thousands of doctors in England began a five-day strike on Friday over pay and training posts, the 13th walkout by medics since March 2023.

Health Minister Wes Streeting condemned the strike by some resident doctors — who are below consultant level and make up half the medical workforce of hospitals.

Streeting accused the leadership of the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), of “choosing confrontation over care”.

“This strike isn’t about fairness any more. It’s about political posturing,” he alleged in the right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper.

“We cannot and will not move on pay, especially not after a 28.9-percent pay rise over the last three years and the highest pay award across the entire public sector in the last two,” he added.

The functioning of the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) is a major political issue in Britain, with the government of beleaguered Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer under pressure to bring down waiting times for patients.

The NHS’s ability to reduce waiting lists has been affected in part by repeated industrial action by both resident doctors and consultants.

The BMA argues that the resident doctors need a 26-percent pay hike to restore their earnings to the real value they had two decades ago.

The union is also demanding an increase in training posts.

– Cost of living crisis –

Doctors complain that 30,000 medics are applying for 10,000 training places which will allow them to progress in their careers towards becoming a consultant.

The situation is leaving many doctors without a permanent job after years of training.

Streeting said two-thirds of applications for the 10,000 available posts were from doctors trained overseas and that he was working to reform the situation urgently.

“One of the things that I’m doing is putting an end to the absurdity where homegrown talent are having to compete for the same training places on equal terms against people who’ve trained overseas,” he told LBC Radio.

“The challenge is a legal one. I’m looking at whether there are things I can do more quickly,” he added.

The strike comes amid a prolonged cost of living crisis that has sparked strikes across the UK economy.

Groups including teachers, nurses, ambulance workers, lawyers, train workers and border staff have all walked out over the past three and a half years.

Earlier this month, London Underground workers accepted a 3.4-percent pay rise following a five-day stoppage in September which crippled the capital’s transport network.