Unprecedented week announced
Mass strike paralyzes British health service
02/06/2023, 1:50 p.m
Actually, Brexit should flush hundreds of millions of pounds into the British healthcare system. But far from it. The situation in the NHS is desolate, now tens of thousands of employees are going down their jobs. The NHS is set to face an unprecedented week of severe disruption.
The biggest strike in the 75-year history of the National Health Service (NHS) has begun in Britain. Tens of thousands of nurses, orderlies and paramedics stopped work together. The nurses also want to walk out on Tuesday, the paramedics again on Friday. This means that the health service is facing an unprecedented week with serious operational disruptions, said the service’s medical director, Stephen Powis.
The nursing union Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is demanding wage increases that it estimates will match the UK’s record inflation of more than 10 percent. The government rejects calls for inflation to be adjusted by five percent as unaffordable. The RCN is now ready to accommodate the government. Weeks of talks brought no result. The RCN points out that tens of thousands of carers and nurses have quit their jobs because of insufficient pay – 25,000 alone last year. The severe shortage of staff is affecting patient care.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a recent television interview that he would “love to give nurses a hefty wage increase”. But the government has tough decisions to make and is funding the NHS in other areas, such as providing medical equipment and ambulances. The situation in the NHS is dramatic. Millions of people are on waiting lists for surgeries, with thousands more missing out on adequate emergency care every month.
Strike especially in England
This Monday’s major strike is mainly concentrated in England after nurses and some paramedics in Wales called off the walkout after a wage offer from the local government. In England, not all paramedics will go on strike at the same time this Monday, emergency calls should be answered.
The UK has already seen a spate of strikes in various sectors in recent months as a result of inflation – the highest level in four decades. Just last week there was a mass strike in which hundreds of thousands of civil servants took to the streets demanding higher wages. Nurses and paramedics had previously stopped work separately.