UK: NHS Doctors Begin 72-Hour Strike Over Pay

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Facts

  • Thousands of junior doctors and consultants across England launched a three-day strike on Monday to demand better pay and working conditions, the second such strike in less than a month. The strike coincided with the ruling Conservative Party's annual meeting in Manchester.1
  • The industrial action, which is expected to significantly impact already disrupted non-emergency National Health Service (NHS) operations, comes months after the government offered an average 6% raise for consultants and 8.8% for junior doctors. The raises come after years of stagnant wages that have eroded take-home income for both groups.2
  • Besides junior doctors and consultants having seen a real pay drop of over a third in the past 15 years, the British Medical Association has also argued that this move is against the backdrop of a largely understaffed and 'under-resourced health service.'3
  • In a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the union has expressed willingness to refrain from staging further walkouts for four weeks in a bid to facilitate negotiations, abandoning its reluctance to call off strikes without a firm offer from the government.4
  • Radiographers across the country are expected to join consultants and junior doctors on Tuesday in strike action as well as in a rally at lunchtime outside the Tory conference in Manchester Central — adding to the disruption — as they also are protesting about pay and the cost of living crisis.5
  • Strikes in the NHS have been ongoing since the end of last year, with no signs that the stalemate between doctors and the government will end soon as both sides blame each other for the now 7.7M person-long NHS waiting list for elective treatment.6

Sources: 1Al Jazeera, 2BBC News, 3GB News, 4Times, 5Guardian and 6Independent.

Narratives

  • Right narrative, as provided by The Telegraph. Union marches and picket lines are almost a constitutional requirement for a Conservative Party conference to take place, so this latest NHS stoppage doesn't come as a surprise. Yet, doctors should really ponder whether they feel comfortable causing harm to patients and being a political pawn of the Labour Party in its attempt to damage the Tories.
  • Left narrative, as provided by Mirror. Though Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government has outrageously condemned striking doctors and other health care workers for his own failure to appropriately capacitate health services in England and bring down all-time-high NHS waiting lists, Sunak's blame game hasn't persuaded the public. Ahead of the winter, the government must depart from empty words and solve the NHS's chronic underfunding.

Predictions