Thousands of junior National Health Service doctors Wednesday were in the second day of a six-day strike over pay. The British Medical Association said a pay hike of 35.3% is needed to offset steep declines in real pay for doctors since 2008. Photo courtesy of British Medical Association
Thousands of British National Health Service doctors Wednesday were in the second day of a six-day strike over pay, the longest strike the NHS has faced.
According to the British Medical Association, junior NHS doctors are striking over a “steep decline in pay” with cuts of 26.1% since 2008. Advertisement
“A crippling cost-of-living crisis, burnout and well below inflation pay rises risk driving hard working doctors out of their profession at a time when we need them more than ever,” the BMA said in a statement. “If junior doctors are forced out of the NHS because of poor pay and conditions, the services we all rely on to look after our loved ones will suffer.”
Striking doctors are demanding full pay restoration, which the BMA says would be an increase of 35.3% above the 2021-2022 pay levels to return to the real 2008-09 compensation levels.
The British government so far isn’t offering anything close to full pay restoration for doctors, offering just 6% adjustments in pay, according to annual public sector salary adjustments announced last summer.
BMA’s junior doctor union leader Dr. Vivek Trivedi told the BBC the strike could end if the government makes a credible pay increase offer. Advertisement
“Anyone from the government could still come to us today and if we thought that offer was credible, and if we can resume talks and build on that, then we can stop our strike action for the rest of the week,” Trivedi said.
On the picket lines outside Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary striking junior doctors indicated they didn’t want to be on strike but felt they had no choice.
The BMA’s Dr. Sumi Manirajan said from that picket line that unlike the situation in England, Scottish doctors didn’t have to strike to win pay increases.
She added, “I urge Victoria Atkins [the health secretary] to come to the table and negotiate with us because that is the only way our dispute will end.”
While picketing, Dr. Kashif Cheema said that pay isn’t the only issue, alleging that hundreds of people are “dying needlessly” as many patients wait for hours in ambulance corridors because too few doctors are available to treat them.
