LONDON – Junior doctors in England ramped up their industrial action on Dec 20, beginning the first walkout of their biggest strike yet in a protracted pay battle.
Hospitals have warned that the action could threaten emergency care provision at the busiest time of the year.
The junior doctors – those below specialist and consultant levels – started joining picket lines from 7am local time (3pm Singapore time) as part of an initial 72-hour walkout. It is to be followed by a further six-day strike from Jan 3.
The total nine-day action, a major escalation of their pay dispute, is aimed at pressuring health bosses and the government to offer a better deal by severely limiting services at the busiest time of the year.
The doctors say they have been forced to maintain their industrial action, which began earlier in 2023, over a failure to address a host of issues, mostly related to years of below-inflation pay.
Junior doctors abandoned negotiations with the government after being offered a pay rise of between 8 per cent and 10 per cent. They are seeking a 35 per cent improvement, which they say is necessary to cover the impact of inflation over a number of years.
Various healthcare workers, including consultants and nurses, have also held walkouts since 2022, but deals have since been reached with many. However, the junior doctors remain holdouts.
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced the strike earlier in December after a breakdown in long-running talks with the government.
“Doctors are leaving the NHS (National Health Service) in the thousands to go to Australia and New Zealand, which is leaving rota gaps,” said Dr Sumi Manirajan, 29, a junior doctor who was on a picket line at University College London Hospital.
“This means that doctors are getting burnt out to make ends meet.”
Dr Joseph Kendall, a psychiatry doctor also on the picket line, echoed the point, arguing “our social contract has been torn up” as pay issues prompt growing numbers of colleagues to work overseas.
“There’s a massive brain drain ongoing and with the massive amount of debt that’s incurred by doctors, there’s a real sense of abandonment by the country,” he added.
Cheltenham General Hospital said it would close its accident and emergency department as a result of “the very challenging environment”, while hospital bosses in London issued an urgent appeal to the public to use A&E services for “real emergencies only”.
British Health Minister Victoria Atkins said significant contingency measures have been taken to reduce disruption, and added that the door remained open to the BMA to return to negotiations.
Hospital bosses said the six-day strike in January would be the longest strike in the history of NHS. They added that the timing of the two walkouts in quick succession over the Christmas period made them particularly difficult.
“The latest round of strikes at the busiest time of the year will bring substantial challenges to the local NHS, particularly hospital services,” said Dr Ananthakrishnan Raghuram, the chief medical officer of the group which runs Cheltenham’s hospital.
Industrial action in the NHS has resulted in the cancellation of 1.2 million operations and appointments in 2023, hampering British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s efforts to cut waiting lists, one of his major priorities.
The latest strike has drawn criticism from Mr Sunak and hospital leaders, with the latter describing the lengthy walkout as their “worst fears realised”.
“I think it’s deeply regrettable that they’ve walked away from these talks,” Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride told Times Radio on Dec 20.
Britain has been hit by walkouts across various sectors over the last two years as decades-high inflation and a cost-of-living crisis led staff to demand pay rises to keep up with spiralling prices. REUTERS, AFP
