Doctors are again heading out on strike this week, expected to cause more disruption and delays in the NHS.
Junior doctors will walk out for 72 hours from Wednesday, June 14, after the latest round of pay talks broke down back in May. The strike will take place in England from 7am on Wednesday, June 14 until 7am on Saturday, June 17.
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors and medical students in the UK, described the government's five per cent wage rise offer as an 'insult'. The unions are looking for a 35 per cent hike in wages – but after months of conversations with the government, there has been little progress.
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Doctors take aim at the government
The junior doctors claim the 35 per cent demand is actually ‘pay restoration’ after a decade of their salaries not keeping pace with inflation. "The government's 5 per cent pay increase offer is an insult to junior doctors in England,” the BMA said after the last series of talks collapsed. “There's nothing junior about junior doctors, yet our pay has been cut by 26.1 per cent since 2008.”
However, the government has always hit back, being called “unreasonable” by Health Secretary Steve Barclay, who said there must be “movement on both sides” of the dispute.
Now, junior doctors have again decided there ‘is no option but to strike’.
The term junior doctor includes all levels of doctors from the time they start work to becoming a consultant, a process that takes years. There are more than 80,000 junior doctors in the NHS, which make up almost half of the health service's medical workforce. Among that figure are 60,000 doctors eligible to strike.
Dr Rob Laurenson, co-chairman of the BMA junior doctors’ committee, appearing on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme this week, said it is “a real shame” junior doctors in England have to stage a 72-hour walkout from 7am on Wednesday. Dr Laurenson said accepting the government’s offer would have meant “another real-terms pay cut”.
He said: “It’s a real shame that we’re having to call strike action again because the Government’s offer, which was 5 per cent and £1,500, was nothing that began to even restore the pay erosion and in fact would have led to another real-terms pay cut.
“So unfortunately we’ve had to call for another three days of strike action and I’m afraid that there will be some disruption in elective and outpatient care for patients, which I don’t think anyone in this country can afford, so I don’t understand why the government won’t come back to the table and won’t put a credible offer to the table.”
The latest response from the government was issued on June 7. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We hugely value the work of NHS consultants and they received a 4.5 per cent pay uplift last financial year increasing average earnings to around £128,000.
"They will also benefit from generous changes to pension taxation announced at budget and are eligible to apply for additional financial awards worth up to £40,000 a year as part of the NHS consultant contract. We urge the BMA to carefully consider the likely impact of any action on patients."
What about patients?
There has been much support from the public as they have been cheering for doctors standing on the picket lines. But in some corners, public support is wearing thin as patients air their frustrations about having to wait in pain for months for planned procedures, like joint replacements or corrective surgeries – especially after facing delays because of the pandemic.
That backlog is still yet to be cleared and some staff from inside the NHS have voiced concern about how strikes will set back crucial progress in clearing waiting lists. This year’s NHS strikes, which have included industrial action from nurses among other health service staff, are so far estimated to have caused more than a quarter of a million appointment postponements or cancellations.
When asked if he wanted to do so, Dr Laurenson would not apologise to those patients who have been waiting for years for non-urgent appointments and procedures.
The doctor said: “When hospital leaders say non-urgent, non-urgent might be something like non-cancer, but it’s still really important to each individual patient who has been waiting and often waiting for a really long time.
“I think what’s really important is that the government has failed for over a decade now to produce a credible workforce plan that’s going to be able to address outpatient waiting times and we’ve seen over the last 10 years waiting times for appointments go up and up and up.
“It’s the government’s responsibility to fund and resource a healthcare system that works for everyone in this country.”
Again asked if he would apologise, he said: “The strikes don’t have to go ahead though. The government can come to the table and the government can give us a credible offer.
“I can understand that there’s going to be an immense amount of frustration from patients and from our other colleagues when our doctors go on strike this weekend, and it’s going to cause an immense source of frustration for everyone.
“Myself, my family, we all rely on the NHS as well and the disruption caused is not pleasant for anyone involved. It’s a disaster and it’s a disaster that falls primarily at the feet of government.”
In Greater Manchester, strikes have been widespread and this week is no exception. Picket lines will form at all of our major hospitals, including:
Wigan Infirmary
Trafford General Hospital
Royal Bolton Hospital
Fairfield General
Royal Oldham Hospital
Manchester Royal Infirmary
Salford Royal
Tameside General
North Manchester General Hospital
Wythenshawe Hospital
Stepping Hill Hospital
Prestwich Hospital
Fears climbed for the fate of A&E departments in the region, which have been under immense pressure since the decline of Covid-19. More patients have been coming through the doors, more ill than ever before, many medics have told the Manchester Evening News.
But so far, the M.E.N. understands, Greater Manchester’s hospitals have held up during strike days. Consultants have been covered rotas and enough staff have been found to safely keep A&E, and emergency care running.
Strikes until 2024?
Although, many appointments deemed by the NHS - not patients - to be ‘non-urgent’ have been forced to move months into the future. And doctors are now warning that with the lack of any agreement, junior doctors’ strike action could last until next year.
Dr Laurenson said the doctors would be re-balloting this month for an extended six months’ mandate.
He told the Sky programme: “That will give us an extended six months’ mandate which will look towards March of 2024 and if we need to we will re-ballot again during that period to extend our mandate further.”
Asked if he is in this for the long haul, Dr Laurenson replied: “Our members have given us a clear instruction; they would like us to pursue full pay restoration back to 2008 and that’s what we intend to do in our representation of our doctors and our healthcare system.”
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