Doctors in England Stage 14th Strike

Doctors in England staged their 14th strike in under three years on Wednesday over disputes with the government on pay and jobs.

Report from AFP states that Keir Starmer, Labour Prime Minister, has branded the industrial action “irresponsible” at a time when the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) is struggling to handle a “super flu” outbreak.

The five-day stoppage by resident doctors, those below consultant level, comes as negotiations reached a deadlock over their demand for a 26 percent pay increase to compensate for what they say is a real-time loss of earnings due to inflation.

The pay demand is in addition to a 28.9 percent increase already secured over three years following earlier strikes.

Shivam Sharma, a 25-year-old doctor, stated outside St Thomas’ Hospital that the National Health Service needed more doctors.

“We know that we’re about 40,000 doctors short compared to the EU average. And that means doctors are having to do the job of multiple doctors.”

Laura Harmer, a demonstrator, also stated that the government is trying to demonise junior doctors.

“They’re calling us things like ‘moaning minnies’, ‘juvenile delinquents’. I think they really want to push the blame onto us, when in reality we’re working in these conditions that aren’t acceptable for the pay that we’re getting.”

Wes Streeting, the health minister, further explained that with the current economic government, it was impossible to meet the demands of the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents the doctors.

He stated: “There are such a wide range of pressures on the public purse at the moment, on everything from the defence of the nation to crumbling public infrastructure.

“That is the context in which I’ve asked resident doctors to understand that as a government we’re going as hard and as fast as we can to improve pay, terms and conditions and quality of services.”

The minister has already agreed to the doctors’ union’s demand that UK-trained medics get priority for training posts over candidates from overseas.