00:00Resident doctors across England have begun another round of industrial action with some of the most visible picket lines forming outside St Thomas Hospital here in the capital in central London.
00:16The strikes highlighting long-standing frustrations over pay, career progression and working conditions within the NHS and they have become a focal point of the wider debate about the future of the health service in the country and here in London too.
00:34Now at the centre of the dispute is pay. Resident doctors have argued that their salaries have fallen significantly in real terms since 2008 and leaving them struggling with the rising cost of living especially here in the capital.
00:49The demand for full pay restoration has remained consistent throughout the negotiations and they say the decline in real terms earnings does not reflect the level of responsibility or pressure involved in the job.
01:07Pay is not the only issue driving the walkouts though but it is the most prominent.
01:13There is also ongoing frustration over career progression and the structure of early career training after graduating from university.
01:23The government maintains that it has already taken significant steps to resolve the dispute pointing to what it describes as a 28% increase over several years for resident doctors.
01:37Here is what Health Secretary West Streeting had to say.
01:40It is so frustrating that the BMA are embarking on this totally unnecessary strike action given resident doctors have had a 28.9% pay rise and the highest pay rise in the public sector two years in a row and a poll in the Times shows that had they put the deal I offered them to their members these strikes would not be going ahead.
02:01There are consequences for these strikes as much as the BMA want to try and ignore them it means disruption to patients despite our best efforts and I don't take lightly the fact that people will be having appointments tests scans and treatments delayed because of this irresponsible action.
02:17I think that's grossly unfair.
02:20It will also have an impact on NHS finances.
02:23I mean these rounds of strike action cost around a quarter of a billion pounds.
02:27I'd rather be investing that in frontline care for patients.
02:31We could also improve conditions for doctors as I offered.
02:34The more the BMA do this the more they risk setting back the progress we're making.
02:39Progress that's seen waiting lists fall for the first time in 15 years.
02:42Ambulances arriving 10 minutes faster this year than they did last year.
02:46And patient satisfaction rising with GPs.
02:49The NHS is on the road to recovery.
02:50This weekend is going to be a real bump in the road but I'm determined to make sure we put our foot down the accelerator and give the public the NHS they deserve.
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