in england have started a four day strike that threatens to bring the worst disruption in the history of the health service. it runs all the way through to saturday morning, and could mean the cancellation of 350,000 appointments and operations. the doctors union is in a row with the government over pay forjunior doctors, with the british medical association sticking to its demand of a 35% pay rise and the government refusing to negotiate until what it sees as a more reasonable pay demand is met. catherine burns reports. what do we want? pay rise! how do we get it? strike! this winter, we ve got used to seeing nhs staff waving banners on picket lines. we re now into the fifth month of industrial action, but this walk out byjunior doctors in england is bigger in scale than anything that s come before. the bma is being accused of picking dates to maximise disruption. their view is industrial action is meant to cause some disturbance. we ve been open and honest and transparent
hello and welcome to bbc news. we begin here in england where thousands ofjunior doctors in england have started a four day strike that threatens to bring the worst disruption in the history of the health service. it runs all the way through to saturday morning and could mean the cancellation of 350,000 appointments and operations. the doctors union is in a row with the government over pay forjunior doctors, with the british medical association sticking to its demand of a 35% pay rise and the government refusing to negotiate until what it sees as a more reasonable pay demand is met. catherine burns reports. what do we want? pay rise! how do we get it? strike! this winter, we ve got used to seeing nhs staff waving banners on picket lines. we re now into the fifth month of industrial action, but this walk out byjunior doctors in england is bigger in scale than anything that s come before. the bma is being accused of picking dates to maximise disruption. their view is indu
0ur ask has not changed, because all we are looking to do is restore the pay thatjuniors have lost, but at every opportunity that we might think we can break through it seems they have another precondition, another hurdle, another obstacle for us to go through. nhs bosses will prioritise a&e and areas like maternity, neonatal and critical care. but they expect many, possibly around 350,000, routine appointments to be postponed. including philip fisher s surgery to tackle constant ear infections. he says it shouldn t have come to this. when i received the phone call, i was gutted. i ended up crying. because the pain unbearable. now, what do i do? what do i do now? i just have to wait. why is it cancelled? who s accountable?
sophie naftalin, thank you. well, in resonse to this investigation the independent 0ffice for police conduct says in a statement it doesn t dispute there needs to be change. but says police forces are often best placed to handle complaints and restore relationships with complainants. the home office said the reputation of british policing has been damaged, but it was asking police chiefs to root out any current officers unfit to serve and launching a review into police dismissals. the us and the philippines are holding their largest everjoint military drills a day after china concluded large scale exercises around taiwan. beijing simulated attacks on taiwan in response to the island s leader meeting the us house speaker last week. plans for the joint exercises between the us and philippines predated china s activities but won t do anything to calm already simmering tensions in the region. 0ur correspondent shaimaa khalil has more details. security personnel will remain