Junior hospital doctors in England have begun a five-day strike, a week before a general election citing the state of the publicly funded National Health Service as the major issue.

 It follows nearly a dozen similar actions by doctors below the specialist, consultant level over the last 18 months.

 The NHS is grappling with a massive backlog caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and exacerbated by the repeated doctors’ strikes. As well as delays to operations and starting cancer treatment, an increasingly dissatisfied public also face long waits to see a doctor at their local surgery.

The doctors have been asking for 35 percent “pay restoration” as a starting position amid a cost-of-living crisis.