Thousands of doctors begin a five-day strike on Thursday, a mobilization of unprecedented duration, to demand a salary increase in the midst of the cost of living crisis. The “junior doctors”, a status close to that of interns in France, begin a new strike from 7 a.m. Thursday, until Tuesday at the same time. This is their longest continuous mobilization in the history of the NHS, the British public health service, which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, according to the BMA (British Medical Association) union.
This Thursday “marks the start of the longest doctors’ strike in NHS history”, BMA officials Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi said. “We can call off this strike if the UK government follows the lead” of the Scottish government which made a new offer which led to a suspension of the movement. The government’s “utter inflexibility” is “puzzling” and “ultimately destructive to anyone who wants waiting lists to go down and NHS staff to go up”, they added.
The BMA union says junior doctors have lost 26% of pay, in real terms, since 2008, when an austerity package was imposed on the health service. The union demanded a 35% wage increase, which the government opposed.