COMP NEWS – Junior doctors in England will walk out for a five-day strike next month, according to the British Medical Association
Junior doctors — those below consultant level — will walk out for five days from 7:00 am (0600 GMT) on July 13 until the same time on July 18, the British Medical Association said.
The stoppage — just after the NHS marks its 75th anniversary — follows a 72-hour strike this month in opposition to the government’s refusal to budge on its offer of a five-percent pay increase.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said the new strike was “extremely disappointing”.
“It puts patient safety and our efforts to cut waiting lists at risk,” he told reporters, insisting the government’s offer was “fair and reasonable”.
But medics say they have seen a 26-percent pay cut in real terms in the last 15 years, as salaries have failed to keep pace with inflation.
They want pay restored to 2008-2009 levels but the government says this would mean an average pay award of about 35 percent this year and is too costly.
Health officials say that disrupting national services could create a backlog of postponed treatments caused by lack of resources and funding.
Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi, who jointly chair the BMA junior doctors’ committee, said the government seemed intent on letting the NHS “decline to the point of collapse”.
Laurenson and Trivedi said the government was refusing to reopen talks on pay, forcing them to stage “the longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history”.
The strike could be averted if the government comes up with a “credible offer” on pay restoration, they added.
A series of strikes by doctors, nurses and other medical staff over below-inflation pay rises and conditions has hit patient care, forcing the cancellation or rescheduling of appointments.
Health officials say it has disrupted services, just as the service battles to clear a huge backlog in treatment caused by years of under-funding and under-staffing, and by the Covid pandemic.
To read more about the potential strike, click here.
For more Comp News, see our recent posts.
Comp News is brought to you by CompXL, the flexible compensation software provider that enables mid- to large-size organizations to implement competitive pay structures such as vested stock options and variable incentive pay.
