‘Daunted’: new junior doctors in England voice worries as strike begins

Financial anxieties and fear of backlash weigh on those who have just started in roles as they take part in action over pay

As junior doctors in England take to the picket line on Friday morning, thousands of them will have been in their roles since only last week after finishing medical school. Now in their first year of foundation training, they will be ending their working week by hanging up their stethoscopes and picking up a placard.

The strike is the fifth round of industrial action organised by the British Medical Association (BMA) and is scheduled to run for four full days from 7am amid the bitter dispute with the government over pay.