Junior doctors in England started their longest strike on Wednesday, in what has been described as “the toughest week” of the year for hospitals.
The six-day walkout by members of the British Medical Association (BMA) is part of an ongoing dispute over pay.
The union has been calling for a “pay restoration” for junior doctors, saying their salary has decreased by over a quarter in real terms compared to 2008.
Last summer, the government gave junior doctors in England an average rise of 8.8 percent, but medics said the increase was not enough and ramped up strike efforts.
There had been hopes that the dispute may get resolved when the government and the union reentered talks in October last year, but the talks broke down after five weeks.
In a statement published ahead of the strike on Wednesday, BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr. Robert Laurenson and Dr. Vivek Trivedi said doctors are “set to be paid £15.50 an hour and are being forced to go back out on strike by a government that cannot get its act together and make the reasonable offer on pay it knows it eventually must.”
Speaking from a picket line in Manchester, Dr. Emma Runswick, deputy chair of council at the BMA and a junior doctor, said, “We want doctors to be paid about £20 an hour, we don’t think that’s unreasonable, nor do patients, nor do the public.”
Doctors on the picket line said that they believe low pay has been driving doctors overseas, putting more pressure on those who remain.
Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins urged the BMA to call off the strikes telling Sky News she’s “very concerned” about the NHS.
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, told “BBC Breakfast” the week “immediately after the Christmas and New Year period” is “the toughest week” of the year because of flu, COVID-19, and other demands.
“So there’s going to be an impact on patients that will be significant,” he said. “The vast majority of planned operations appointments and so on, will have to be stood down, consultants will be covering the work of junior doctors, and of course at a time when there’s a lot of COVID and flu about, that can affect staff as well as patients so the challenge of filling those rotas will be significant for a lot of organisations.”
Sir Julian said the NHS is already “under enormous pressure,” adding, “So we are deeply concerned about the kind of impact over the coming days.”
Nick Hulme, chief executive of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, told LBC Radio the impact of the strike on patients is “absolutely huge.”
He said that hundreds of appointments and thousands of outpatient appointments had been cancelled across his hospital trust, adding, “These are people who’ve already waited a very very long time.”
He said he’s frustrated over the “inability, or the perceived inability, for the government and the BMA to get around the table and to compromise and to find a solution.”
“If you just read the rhetoric that comes from both sides, it seems that there’s an intransigent position, and whilst that continues it’s the patients who are paying the price,” he said.
Of the 1,219,422 acute inpatient and outpatient appointment cancellations since the current period of strikes began, just over three-quarters have been on days where junior doctors have taken industrial action either by themselves or with other groups.
Urging patients to seek help if they need it, NHS England said on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Please continue to come forward for NHS care. If you need urgent medical help, use 111, and if it is a serious or life-threatening emergency, please call 999.”
BMA junior doctors are also joined by their colleagues from the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association union, who are striking on the same dates.
BMA’s consultants and specialty and associate specialist members, who were also in pay disputes with the government until late last year, have since agreed a deal, which is now being put to members.
