“Labour pledged to resolve the pay disputes but things are just getting worse. The wait times are getting longer and it seems the unions are more demanding than ever. Another broken promise from this government.”
Resident doctors in England have launched yet another five day strike in their bitter pay dispute with ministers, prompting a furious backlash from Health Secretary Wes Streeting who accused the action of “inflicting pain and misery” on patients.
“We could do without this reckless action,” he said, insisting the walkout risks worsening delays for people already suffering. He accused the British Medical Association of failing to consider the consequences, adding, “Tell that to someone who’s waiting in pain and agony for their appointment.”
The stoppage, which runs until 07:00 on Wednesday, involves resident doctors, the new title for junior doctors, who make up nearly half of the hospital medical workforce. Despite this, NHS England says most services will continue and patients should turn up for appointments unless told otherwise.
Hospitals Brace for Severe Strain
Hospitals are expected to feel the greatest pressure, yet NHS England is aiming to keep around 95 per cent of non urgent procedures going, including hip and knee replacements. Consultants and senior doctors are being redeployed, with many being asked to work overtime, and the health service is relying on the third of resident doctors who are not BMA members.
These emergency measures come with a hefty price tag. The NHS estimates the five day strike will cost around £240 million in cover and additional staffing.
Nick Hulme, chief executive of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, told BBC Radio 4’s Todayprogramme that although some disruption was unavoidable, the impact would be “at a minimum” thanks to careful staff reorganisation. He added that more resident doctors were choosing to work this time, saying, “They are voting with their feet and returning to work.”
BMA Says Dispute Has Hit a Dead End
BMA council chairman Dr Tom Dolphin said talks with the government had reached a stalemate. “We’ve got pay that is still a fifth down on the value that it had in 2008,” he said. He warned that “thousands of doctors” were struggling to secure training posts, preventing them from becoming future specialists and GPs.
Hulme said his trust was working to ensure doctors were given good notice of rotas and were not being expected to travel long distances, but he stressed that pay was an issue only the BMA and government could resolve.
Meanwhile, resident doctors in Scotland are balloting for their own strike action.
NHS Leaders Warn of Fresh Winter Danger
NHS England medical director Professor Meghana Pandit said it was “frustrating and disappointing” to see a thirteenth round of industrial action coming as flu cases rise earlier than expected. “Despite this, staff across the NHS are working extremely hard to maintain care and limit disruption,” she said.
Dolphin warned that keeping services running would be “challenging” and insisted striking doctors should not be “bullied or coerced” into returning to work. He said they would only leave picket lines in the event of a major emergency such as a mass casualty incident.
Streeting Escalates His Attack on Doctors’ Union
The walkout comes after Streeting launched his strongest attack yet on the BMA at a conference of health managers. He accused the union of acting “like a cartel” and branded it “morally reprehensible” for allegedly holding the nation “to ransom”.
He said resident doctors had already received pay rises worth nearly 30 per cent over the last three years, bringing average basic salaries to just above £54,000. Talks collapsed last week when the BMA rejected a government offer that included covering exam and membership fees and expanding specialty training places.
The union argues that once inflation is taken into account, resident doctor pay remains around 20 per cent lower than in 2008. It also highlights a growing jobs bottleneck at the crucial step into specialty training, where more than 30,000 applicants competed for only 10,000 posts this year.
Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chair of the BMA Council, told the BBC: “We need a solution for the jobs crisis, that bottleneck for doctors who are out of permanent work or out of consistent work. Then we need to be able to retain those doctors throughout their careers by paying them appropriately, and that means restoration of pay.”
Speaking to the Conservative Post, a retired doctor said: “Labour pledged to resolve the pay disputes but things are just getting worse. The wait times are getting longer and it seems the unions are more demanding than ever. Another broken promise from this government.”
Doctors Warn UK Cannot Compete With Overseas Salaries
On the Today programme, Dolphin said the UK was struggling to keep doctors because salaries in countries such as Ireland, Australia and Canada are “two, sometimes more times than what they are in the UK”. He added, “We have got to make sure that we are investing in staff in the UK so we can retain them in the UK and provide specialists and GPs that people need.”
“We want to negotiate, we want a settlement to this. We do not want to be on strike. We would much rather be looking after the patients,” he said.
The Conservative Party has said it would ban doctors from striking altogether, placing them under similar restrictions to the police and the armed forces.
The scandal of bias at the BBC. Kemi Badenoch said ” I think that what we need to see now is a root and branch reform. What this shows is that this is a pattern of behaviour. There are people there pretending to be Impartial but who have an agenda ” (express politics article)
Wow! BBC Forced to Correct Two Gaza Stories a Week! Total of 215 corrections! Telegraph article