More doctors are organizing—and putting hospital contingency plans to the test
Industry Buzz
Strikes are a test to see if the internal structures of a hospital are just on paper or real.
—Sharon Heng, MBBS, PhD
US healthcare workers had staged at least 16 strikes by mid-July 2026, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. Most involved nurses and other healthcare professionals, but physician organizing is also gaining momentum.[]
In June, more than 240 physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants employed by Banner Health filed for union representation across 31 Phoenix-area clinics. Together, they care for more than 500,000 patients each year.[]
The trend continued in Massachusetts in July 2026. Around 4,000 unionized nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital staged a one-day strike, while roughly 450 Mass General Brigham Home Care clinicians began a seven-day walkout. Both groups were represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association. The home care clinicians had voted to unionize in 2024 and were seeking their first contract after more than a year of negotiations.[]
These disputes show how unionization is spreading across multidisciplinary clinical teams and how staffing, workload, and control over care delivery are becoming shared labor issues.
Sharon Heng, MBBS, PhD, FRCOphth, a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, and Clinical Lead for the Medical Retina Digital Clinics and for the Northwest London Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Programme, says, “Strikes are a test to see if the internal structures of a hospital are just on paper or real.”
Related: Advocate for a 4-day work week to combat burnoutThe current state of the union
A 2025 JAMA analysis identified 77 union petitions involving attending physicians between 2000 and May 2024. Nearly 70% were filed after 2019. Forty-three came from California, Oregon, or Washington.[]
Reported reasons included inadequate staffing, reduced physician autonomy, burnout, compensation, and concerns about patient care.
Related: The toxic link between physician identity, income, and burnoutWhat international strikes tell us
South Korea offers the clearest warning about prolonged disruption. Most trainee physicians left teaching hospitals in February 2024 after the government proposed a major expansion in medical school admissions.[]
England’s resident doctors have also staged repeated walkouts since March 2023 over pay erosion, staffing pressure, and employment concerns. Doctors held another six-day strike in April 2026.[] A planned June walkout was cancelled while members considered a revised government offer covering pay and training posts.[]
Discussing the operational impact, Dr. Heng says, “NHS appointments were rescheduled in excess of 1.7 million since the end of 2022, and those hospitals that were planning for short action were the ones that had to pick up that backlog.”
Before the revised offer, Jack Fletcher, MD, chair of the British Medical Association’s resident doctors committee, said doctors were hearing “vagueness on new jobs and no further money on the table.”[]
Related: The EHR 'second shift' costs docs more than time: Try these expert-backed fixes to reduce inbox overloadImpact on patient care
A 2026 cohort study found that the South Korean walkout was associated with a 0.39 percentage-point increase in 30-day mortality after hospitalization, major reductions in service use, and higher spending per encounter. The mortality association was concentrated among patients admitted with general medical conditions.[]
However, evidence remains mixed. Other studies have found no increase in in-hospital patient mortality during physician strikes.[]
Dr. Heng identifies poor contingency planning as a central risk: “The most risky assumption a hospital can make is that the strike will be short.”
She gives diabetic retinopathy care as one example: “If a patient has active diabetic retinopathy, they should be seen at predetermined intervals, and missing one of these appointments can be the difference between treatable and untreatable disease.”
Communication failures compound the risk.
“The second problem is no communication plan with patients, leaving people at home wondering if their appointment is still happening and who to call. Post-strike delayed procedure lists that are not audited by the hospital allow the backlog to accumulate to the point where it becomes a patient safety issue,” she states.