WASHINGTON — A 45-year-old man from Washington near Sunderland has had his gastric bypass surgery postponed to May after it was originally scheduled to take place at Sunderland Royal Hospital. The postponement of Tom Lawson's procedure is due to a six-day strike by British Medical Association resident doctors.

Lawson has waited more than three years for the surgery and has suffered three heart attacks during that time. "It was kind of like being hit with a sledgehammer," he said in a broadcast interview of learning the operation had been delayed again. "Ultimately, the impact on me personally is another month of worry," Lawson said.

The strike is the 15th by BMA members since 2023, after talks with the government broke down over new pay and training deals. Resident doctors have received a 33% pay increase over the last four years through a series of deals. The BMA said not enough has been done to address concerns about pay and job shortages.

Resident doctor Dr Harry Waterman said the pay dispute needed broader context. "We're not just being greedy, we acknowledge that there's been an uplift, that there's been more than other professions have received. But what you also need to do is you need to put that into context of that fact that we'd seen far greater erosion than other public sector health workers have seen," he said.

The government had offered an extra 1,000 training places for resident doctors, but this offer has been taken off the table due to the latest strikes. Waterman said: "It's been incredibly frustrating because we know those thousand training places wouldn't only benefit doctors, they would benefit the public. To make those waiting lists come down, part of the thing we need to do is actually increase the amount of consultants that we have."

The government said doctors' expectations are unreasonable and unrealistic, and that industrial action is costing the NHS £50 million per day. The Department of Health and Social Care said the government had offered a deal it described as generous and that it is disappointing the BMA has pressed on with strike action. The department said the attention of the NHS will now be focused on minimising disruption.