35 percent more money
English doctors go on strike again for five days
February 24, 2024, 4:18 p.m
English junior doctors have been fighting for higher salaries for months. They temporarily stopped working as early as January. Now again for five days. Since the strikes began, appointments and operations for hundreds of thousands of people have had to be postponed.
In England, thousands of junior doctors in the British NHS (National Health Service) hospitals are stopping their work for five days. The doctors’ union British Medical Association (BMA) is calling for a 35 percent pay increase for young doctors in view of ongoing inflation. The government, on the other hand, considers the demand to be excessive.
It is the second long strike since the beginning of the year and the eleventh in the collective bargaining dispute that has been ongoing for months. In January, the junior doctors stopped working in the English hospitals for six days. The renewed industrial action comes at a time when the NHS, which has been underfunded for years, is struggling with a decline in medical professionals and long waiting lists for treatment.
Union rejects offer that is too low
“The government could have ended these strikes simply by making a credible offer to junior doctors in England,” said junior doctors union representatives Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi. This would have allowed the government to reverse the wage cuts that have been imposed for more than ten years, the trade unionists explained.
The government had previously signaled its willingness to go above and beyond the salary increases already granted by up to 10.3 percent. Health Minister Victoria Atkins now regretted that the union had refused to make the government’s latest offer to its members. “I want to see doctors treating patients, not on picket lines,” said the Health Minister. According to them, more than 1.3 million appointments and surgeries have had to be canceled or rescheduled since the strikes began.
Salaries have fallen since 2008
According to the government, junior doctors in England earn around 15 pounds (17.30 euros) an hour and therefore around 32,000 pounds (around 37,000 euros) in their first year of practice. According to the BMA doctors’ union, salaries have fallen by almost a quarter since 2008, taking inflation into account. Inflation in Great Britain has been even higher in the past two years than in many other Western countries.
Health policy in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the local governments; the British government in London is only responsible for England.