UK Doctors Strike: 7m on NHS waiting list PM Sunak prefers private health shareholders to UK voters

12 Apr 2023 Industrial actions galore are what the United Kingdom has been witnessing for over a year now. From teachers to journalists to civil servants to bus drivers and so many others, it almost appears that no profession has been spared in the UK of poor working conditions and/or not having a livable wage. And today, junior doctors have joined in by going on strike until Saturday. Will the government be able to pacify these professionals or will the situation simply continue to deteriorate?
Downing Street says 35% demand is ‘completely out of step’ with rest of public sector as four-day NHS action continues.
Junior doctors across England are staging a four-day strike, in a worsening dispute over pay which threatens huge disruption to the NHS. An estimated 350,000 appointments, including operations, are expected to be cancelled as a result of the action that follows years of what critics say are real-terms pay cuts that the government refuses to rectify.

Fears were expressed that patient safety would be put at risk by the strike action. While the BMA said it could not guarantee the safety of every patient, that was because the NHS was already so badly underfunded that patient safety was at constant risk.

Medics have had “absolutely nothing” from the health secretary regarding pay negotiations, the deputy chair of the BMA Council said. Dr Emma Runswick told BBC Breakfast that Steve Barclay could have averted the strike action “at any point”. She added that he “literally walked out of the room, having put nothing on the table” during one round of talks and that the BMA was looking to the government to make an offer.

There will be no talks with the BMA unless junior doctors abandon their starting position of a 35% rise and call off the strikes, Downing Street insisted. The health secretary claimed his door was open, but refused to have meaningful discussions with the BMA unless it lowered its demands.

Junior doctors on picket lines described friends and colleagues turning to food banks and having to borrow money just to make their rent. They said the pay increases they were looking for were likely to only represent a return to pay levels of 15 years ago – equating to an increase of about £5 per hour to £19.

Here’s our full report on the day’s industrial action:

Related: Junior doctors in England begin four-day strike over pay
No 10 insists no talks with doctors unless pay demands are abandoned
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There will be no talks with the BMA unless junior doctors abandon their starting position of a 35% rise and call off the strikes, Downing Street has said.

A No 10 spokesman said Rishi Sunak was being kept up to date about the impact of the industrial action.

It continues to be the case that we call on the BMA junior doctors to cease their strikes and revise their starting point for negotiations, which is 35%, which we continue to believe is unreasonable and is not affordable for the British taxpayer.

The 35% demand was “completely out of step with pay settlements in other parts of the public sector” and would cost £2bn.

We know that the strike action will have an impact on patient care. The last set of strikes saw around 180,000 operations cancelled and that was a three-day strike, so we’d expect to see higher numbers this week.

The BMA has said members’ real-terms pay has fallen by 26% over the last 15 years – and that its goal in the negotiations is ultimately to restore members’ living standards. Meanwhile, people on picket lines have described colleagues turning to food banks and borrowing money to meet their rents.

The health secretary, Steve Barclay, has insisted his “door remains open”, claiming that he wants to engage in talks with junior doctors.

That’s despite the BMA’s claim that he has met with the union only briefly, made no “credible offer” to avert the strikes and did not attend the latest meeting in person. He told broadcasters:

Видео UK Doctors Strike: 7m on NHS waiting list PM Sunak prefers private health shareholders to UK voters канала Peter Borenius