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-fu

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