A strike of unprecedented length in the British healthcare system. THE young doctorsDoctors with a status similar to that of trainees in France will stop working in England for six days from Wednesday January 3 to demand pay rises.
After three days of strike before Christmas and numerous other work stoppages in recent months, young doctors are intensifying their mobilization after the end-of-year holidays, as no agreement has been reached with the government in the face of the inflation crisis. The movement of young doctorsof which there are almost 70,000 in England, starts on Wednesday morning at 7am local time (8am in Paris) and ends at the same time on Tuesday January 9th.
This new six-day strike comes at a time when the UK’s public health system (NHS) is suffering from a shortage of doctors and is struggling to reduce gigantic waiting lists for patients. In recent months, for the first time, there have been a series of historic strikes by various categories of staff, including nursing staff.
The NHS was concerned about the consequences of this movement in the middle of winter and stated that the “Almost all routine care will be interrupted” with priority given to emergency care.
A wage decline of almost a quarter since 2008
This January could be “One of the worst starts to a year the NHS has ever experienced”warned Stephen Powis, medical director of NHS England, in a press release, urging patients not to give up care. “Not only will this action have a huge impact on planned care, but it comes on top of a range of seasonal pressures such as Covid-19, flu and staff absences due to illness, which impact the treatment of patients in hospitals.”he added.
A Junior doctor In his first year in office, he earned around 32,000 pounds sterling (37,000 euros), according to the government. According to the British Medical Association (BMA), whose ranks include 46,000 young doctors, their salaries have fallen by almost a quarter since 2008, taking inflation into account.
The government negotiated for five weeks in the fall to try to resolve the situation before the tense winter period. He offered them a 3% raise in early December, on top of the average 8.8% raise already given this summer.
Thousands of canceled appointments
However, for the BMA union: “The government has proven unable to make a credible salary offer” : In his opinion, his proposal would not stop the decline in purchasing power. Union Young Doctors Committee representatives Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi said Wednesday they regretted waiting the entire holiday season. the final offer » promised by the Minister of Health without receiving anything.
“We are ready for further discussions, but the first thing we must do is end this strike.”said a Downing Street spokesman on Tuesday, noting that 88,000 medical appointments were canceled during the three days of strike in December. At the time, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described “very disappointing” the continuation of the movement and accused these doctors of further extending the waiting lists for patients.
A category of experienced doctors, Advisorrecently achieved an increase from 6% to 19.6%, on which members of the BMA union have yet to vote.
