Thousands of doctors began a five-day strike in England on Thursday, a mobilization of unprecedented duration that does not affect other nations of the UK, to demand pay rises amid the cost of living crisis.
The “junior doctors”, a status similar to that of interns in France, began their new strike at 7am (6am GMT) on Thursday, which lasted until Tuesday at the same time.
According to the BMA (British Medical Association) union, this is the longest uninterrupted mobilization in the history of the NHS, the British public health service, which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary.
This strike comes as the government must decide on public sector wage increases while inflation remains stuck at 8.7%, the highest among the G7 countries.
In the UK, junior doctors make up around half of hospital doctors, ranging from young doctors who have just graduated to doctors with more than eight years of experience.
They have intensified the strikes in recent months, which has led to the postponement of many non-urgent appointments.
Arjan Sing, a 27-year-old doctor, took his place on a picket line outside University College Hospital in London on Thursday morning. “The NHS depends on the good will of (its staff) and now is the last chance to change that,” he says.
While there are already thousands of vacancies in the NHS, some of his colleagues are considering going to countries “that care about their doctors,” he adds.
“I think something needs to change but I fear that people or the government are not listening and we are seeing a gradual erosion of the NHS which everyone loves,” says colleague Rebecca Lissmann, 29.
This Thursday “marks the beginning of the longest doctors’ strike in the history of the NHS,” BMA officials Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi said before the strike began. “We can call off this strike if the UK government follows the example of the Scottish government,” which made a new offer (a pay rise) that led to the suspension of the movement.
The government’s “complete inflexibility” is “puzzling” and “ultimately destructive to anyone who wants waiting lists to be reduced and NHS staff to be increased,” they added.
Government ‘disappointed’
At the end of June announcement, a Department of Health spokesman had described this new strike as “hugely disappointing” and argued that “these five days of strikes would cause major disruption for patients and put pressure on the other categories of NHS staff”.
The government said it was “ready to continue talks if the strike is called off” and that the strikers backed off their “unreasonable wage demands”.
According to the BMA union, junior doctors have lost 26% of their wages in real terms since 2008, when austerity measures were imposed on health services.
The union is demanding a wage increase of 35%, which the government rejects.
The NHS, to which Britons are very attached, is in deep crisis, weakened by austerity and the fallout from the pandemic.
According to the BMA, around 7.42 million people were waiting for treatment in England in April, including just over 3 million patients for more than 18 months.
While inflation weighed on purchasing power in the UK, nurses, doctors and paramedics went on strike.
After the “junior doctors”, the “consultants”, more highly qualified doctors, filed a strike notice for July 20th and 21st.