Junior doctors in Britain to go on 72-hour strike
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Striking nurses holding signs at a picket line outside University College Hospital in London on Jan 19, 2023.
PHOTO: AFP
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LONDON – Junior doctors in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) will strike for 72 hours starting from Monday, with officials warning of the worst disruption since the latest action began.
“It will be a very difficult day for the NHS,” Ms Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said in an e-mailed statement.
The strike, which coincides with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget on Wednesday, is for better pay and conditions, with the British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors’ union, calling for a reversal of a 26 per cent cut in real wages since 2008-2009.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has been resisting the demands, saying they would stoke inflation.
NHS medical director Stephen Powis said the strike would mean the cancellation of thousands of operations and appointments, and would set back efforts to clear the post-Covid-19 backlog.
There will be even greater disruption on budget day, when civil servants, teachers and London tube drivers stay off the job – although nurses, ambulance drivers and physiotherapists have called off their strikes to enter talks with the government.
“We have been working closely with NHS England on contingency plans to help protect patient safety during strikes,” Health Secretary Steve Barclay said in a statement.
“I hugely value the hard work of junior doctors and urge unions to come to the negotiating table.”
The upheaval will come at a brutal time for the NHS, which has already been struggling with a tough winter and flu season and significant staff shortages.
Patients have faced long waits for emergency care, and ambulances have been queueing outside A&E. And more trouble is brewing as consultants are being balloted to join their junior colleagues in taking strike action.
Next level
Recent industrial action has resulted in more than 140,000 planned procedures and appointments being rescheduled, according to Ms Cordery at NHS Providers. But the scale and duration of the latest strike mean disruption would “move to the next level”.
The BMA moved its attack point to emphasise the effective hourly pay that junior doctors make, saying that they earn a penny less than a barista at Pret a Manger.
“Thanks to this government, you can make more serving coffee than saving patients,” according to an advertising campaign launched Sunday.
In the past few months, Britain has seen train drivers, teachers, ambulance workers, border force officials and others walk out, demanding higher wages to meet the increased cost of living.
Mr Sunak said the junior doctors’ strike was “very disappointing” and urged the BMA to call it off.
“We are actually having constructive dialogue with other unions which have accepted our offer to come in and talk through it,” Mr Sunak said to reporters on Sunday.
“I would urge the junior doctors to follow suit.” BLOOMBERG
