British doctors have started a six-day strike over pay, marking the longest in the history of the National Health Service (NHS). The strike, which began Wednesday, has delayed tens of thousands of English appointments and surgeries.
Patients faced postponed treatments when thousands of British doctors began a six-day strike over wages on Wednesday, the longest in the history of the state-funded National Health Service.
Managers said the England-wide boycott by young doctors will delay tens of thousands of appointments and operations. Doctors, who provide hospital and clinic treatment, will be off work until 7 a.m. on Tuesday.
Leading doctors have been recruited to provide emergency, critical, and maternity care.
NHS Providers CEO Julian Hartley said the strike occurred during the health service’s busiest season “immediately after Christmas and New Year due to pressures and demands, and of course flu and COVID.
“So there’s going to be an impact on patients that will be significant,” stated.
Health workers in Britain have gone on rolling strikes for a year to raise wages to keep up with rising costs. Unions say earnings, especially in the public sector, have plummeted in real terms over the past decade, and double-digit inflation in late 2022 and early 2023, caused by soaring food and energy prices, left many workers struggling to pay bills.
The group claims freshly trained doctors earn 15.53 pounds ($19.37) an hour, just over the U.K. minimum wage, but incomes grow dramatically after the first year.
On a picket line outside St. Thomas’ Hospital in downtown London, 28-year-old Dr. Georgia Blackwell said stress and inadequate pay drove many physicians overseas.
“A lot of doctors are moving to Australia – not just because of the pay, but also the work-life balance is better,” said she.
The walkouts have pressured the health department, which is still recovering from coronavirus epidemic backlogs.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said the strikes were “a serious impact on patients,” rescheduling almost 1.2 million appointments since the strike began.
Impact is hard to measure. Some say strikes delayed testing and treatment, which may have contributed to the U.K.’s largest excess mortality in 2023 since the pandemic year of 2020.
There is minimal proof of a correlation, but COVID-19 and an aging population may have increased fatalities in the U.K. and other nations.
The government has agreed salary accords with nurses, ambulance personnel, and senior doctors, but the junior doctor union has refused, and negotiations broke down late last year. The British Medical Association refuses to discuss without a “credible” compensation offer, while the government won’t start talks unless doctors call off the strike.
The union claims the 8.8% wage boost last year is not enough given junior doctors’ salary has been cut by more than a fourth since 2008.
“The notion that we’re hellbent on calling strikes and all we want to do is not what we want,” said British Medical Association Junior Doctors Committee co-chair Dr. Vivek Trivedi. “What we want is to negotiate an offer we can put to our members and for our members to accept it.”
Conclusion
British doctors have begun a six-day strike over salary, the longest in the National Health Service’s history. Junior doctors, who provide hospital and clinic care, will walkout across England, delaying tens of thousands of appointments and operations. Post-Christmas and New Year stress and COVID-19 make the strike difficult for the health service. Health workers have gone on rolling strikes for a year to raise wages to keep up with rising costs. Since the strike began, almost 1.2 million appointments have been rescheduled, straining the health sector. The impact is hard to quantify, but some say strikes delaying testing and treatment may have caused more UK deaths.
