Key points
- Junior doctors had voted to strike demanding better pay
- Doctors’ protest will start at 0600 GMT on Friday
- Govt says strikes would disrupt patient care
LONDON: A planned five-day junior doctors’ strike in England will go ahead this week, their trade union announced on Tuesday, saying health secretary Wes Streeting had not gone far enough in negotiations over pay and conditions.
Reuters reported that junior doctors, also known as resident doctors, had voted to strike following the government’s award of a 5.4 per cent pay rise. The union has argued this falls far short of the 29 per cent needed to restore their earnings to 2008 levels.
The strikes will start at 0600 GMT on Friday.
Talks with Streeting and government officials over the last few days to reach a compromise have not seen a breakthrough, Reuters cited the British Medical Association (BMA) as saying.
“No to movement on pay”
“What we have seen so far is a series of ‘no’s – no to movement on pay, no to student loan forgiveness, no to any credible move forwards,” according to the statement of BMA co-chairs Melissa Ryan and Ross Nieuwoudt.
Streeting said the strikes would disrupt patient care and put additional pressure on the state-run National Health Service.
Reuters cited Streeting as saying, “The BMA would have lost nothing by taking up the offer to postpone strike action to negotiate a package that would improve the working lives of resident doctors,”.
The BMA co-chairs said their door remained open, but added “we don’t accept we can’t talk about pay.”
“Pay restoration”
BBC reported that health secretary Wes Streeting wrote to the BMA earlier on Tuesday saying he would continue talks if strike action was postponed.
But the BMA said what was up for discussion was not enough and achieving better pay remained the key issue.
According to BBC, resident doctors were awarded an average 5.4 per cent pay rise for this financial year, following a 22 per cent increase over the previous two years.
But the BMA claims wages are still around 20 per cent lower in real terms than in 2008 and are demanding “pay restoration”.
