An unprecedented length. Thousands of doctors began a five-day strike in England on Thursday (July 13) to demand pay rises amid the cost of living crisis. This mobilization does not concern the other nations of the United Kingdom. The “junior doctors”, a status similar to that of interns in France, began their new strike at 7 a.m. (8 a.m. in Paris) 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 British Medical Association (BMA) union. This walkout takes place while the government must decide on wage increases in the public sector. Inflation remains stuck at 8.7%, the highest among G7 countries.
In addition, the unions won a legal victory on Thursday, after challenging a law authorizing the use of temporary workers to replace striking employees. The High Court in London ruled in favor of more than ten unions who argued that the law “weakened the right to strike”.
In the UK, ‘junior doctors’ make up around half of hospital doctors, ranging from young doctors just out of university to practitioners with more than eight years’ experience. They have stepped up strikes in recent months, which has led to the postponement of many non-urgent appointments.
“Total inflexibility” of the government
This Thursday “marks the start of the longest doctors’ strike in NHS history”, BMA officials Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi said before the strike began. “We can call off this strike if the UK government follows the example” of the Scottish government, which made a new offer (of a pay rise) 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.
In a statement issued just before the start of this strike, the Secretary of State for Health, Stephen Barclay, considered it “disappointing” that the union was carrying out this strike, of which he underlined the impact on “thousands of patients”. , which he says will put their safety “in jeopardy” and thwart efforts to try to reduce waiting lists. An increase of “35% or more is unreasonable and risks fueling inflation, which makes everyone poorer,” he 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 NHS, to which the British are very attached, is going through a deep crisis, weakened by austerity policies and the consequences of the pandemic.
According to BMA figures, some 7.42 million people were awaiting treatment in England in April, with just over 3 million patients waiting for more than eighteen months. As inflation weighs on purchasing power in the United Kingdom, walkouts have been observed by nurses, doctors and paramedics alike. After the “junior doctors”, the “consultants”, more qualified doctors, filed a strike notice for July 20 and 21.