Junior doctors have been left with no choice after the British Health Secretary Steve Barclay “refused to attend” a pay negotiation meeting, the British Medical Association (BMA) said on Friday.
The junior doctors want a pay rise to make up for 15 years of inflation, saying that the offer is way below the current double-digit inflation rate. According to the BMA, there has been a 26% cut in salaries of junior doctors since 2008.
Nearly 25,000 paramedics, call handlers, drivers, and technicians took part in staggered strikes over a 24-hour period on Jan. 11. The first industrial action by the BMA took place on Dec. 21.
The prime minister’s office said the strike action was “disappointing” and Barclay has recently met the union to discuss what was fair and affordable.
Philip Banfield, the chair of BMA council, has recently said that junior doctors are struggling financially because they are qualifying with £100,000 ($122,100) in debt.
Following a meeting with Barclay to discuss the strike, Banfield said: “None of our doctors want to strike. They would prefer that this was resolved before we got into that situation.”
However, the failed talks led the union to go ahead with the three-day strike in March.
If doctors decide to leave their jobs as a result of the vote, the strike will be “the second major strike of general practitioners after the strike in 2016,” said Banfield.
While the UK’s healthcare system has always had problems, things have lately taken a turn for the worse amid the fallout of the Russia-Ukraine war, Brexit and a tightening cost-of-living crisis, reports by unions, universities and independent think tanks showed.
One in 10 healthcare workers quit their jobs in the 12 months prior to June last year, according to a study by Nuffield Trust, an independent health think tank in the UK.
Source: Anadolu Agency