UK doctors return to strike trenches, disrupting healthcare delivery
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Junior doctors in England are back on another strike seven months after they staged the biggest walkout in the history of the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS), and they are now creating political headache for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
By law, Sunak must call a general election latest by January 2024 amid a slack in the polls for his right wing Conservative Party – which has been in power since 2010 – and he is currently taking desperate measures to retain his job.
If Labour beats the Conservatives in the ballot, Sunak will be forced to step down as Tory leader, with Tory political adversaries in former PM Liz Truss and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman vigorously plotting his down fall.
Sunak is pandering to racism by doubling down on immigration controls, including sending illegal immigrants to Rwanda, as part of tactics to appease the far right even though their influence may not be strong enough to persuade an electorate fed up with high living costs.
Reuters reports junior doctors in England ramped up their industrial action on Wednesday, beginning the first walk-out of their biggest strike yet, which hospitals warn could threaten emergency care provision at one of the busiest times of the year.
The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents around 50,000 junior doctors, said its members will walk out on Wednesday for three days, and again for six days from January 3 to 9, in a long-running dispute over pay.
Cheltenham General Hospital said it would close its accident and emergency department as a result of “the very challenging environment”, while hospital bosses in London issued an urgent appeal to the public to use A&E services for “real emergencies only”.
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Doctors abandon negotiations with Westminster
Junior doctors abandoned negotiations with the government after being offered a pay rise of between 8 per cent and 10 per cent. They are seeking a 35 per cent improvement which they say is necessary to cover the impact of inflation over a number of years, according to Reuters.
British health minister Victoria Atkins said significant contingency measures had been taken to reduce disruption, and added that the door remained open to the BMA to return to negotiations.
Hospital bosses said the six-day strike in January would be the longest strike in the history of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), and added that the timing of the two walk-outs in quick succession over the Christmas break made them particularly difficult.
“The latest round of strikes at the busiest time of the year will bring substantial challenges to the local NHS, particularly hospital services,” said Ananthakrishnan Raghuram, the chief medical officer of the group which runs Cheltenham’s hospital.
Industrial action in the NHS has resulted in the cancellation of 1.2 million operations and appointments this year, hampering Sunak’s efforts to cut waiting lists, one of his major priorities.
The government has agreed fresh pay deals with other healthcare workers including nurses and senior doctors in recent months, ending the threat of strikes from those groups, but the dispute with junior doctors continues.
“I think it’s deeply regrettable that they’ve walked away from these talks,” Britain’s work and pensions minister Mel Stride told Times Radio on Wednesday.
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