The longest industrial action in the history of the NHS will start on Thursday when junior doctors go on strike for five days. Here we take a look at who is striking and why.
Who is striking?
Thousands of junior and senior doctors are to go on strike across England this month. Junior doctors are qualified doctors in clinical training. They have completed a medical degree and can have up to nine years of working experience as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to five years working and gaining experience to become a general practitioner (GP).
Hospital consultants will also go on strike. Consultants are senior doctors who have completed full medical training in a specialised area of medicine and are listed on the GMC’s specialist register.
When are they striking?
Junior doctors are to go on strike across England for five days, the longest such industrial action in the history of the NHS. The strikes will run from 7am on 13 July until 7am on 18 July.
Hospital consultants are striking for two days shortly after the junior doctors’ strike concludes. They will strike from 7am on 20 July to 7am on 22 July.
Why are they striking?
Announcing the junior doctors’ strike, the British Medical Association (BMA), the trade union and professional body for doctors in the UK, called for full restoration of pay, which it says has been cut by 26% in real terms. The junior doctors want a 35% pay rise to make up for this shortfall.
A BMA survey shows junior doctors are being inundated with opportunities to work abroad, with significant numbers leaving for jobs in countries such as Australia.
The BMA says consultants in England have seen their take-home pay cut by 35% since 2008-09. The union is demanding the end of continual pay erosion and is calling on the government to fix pay, beginning with agreement with the BMA on the pay award for 2023-24, and a commitment to a mechanism to redress the long-term reduction in consultant pay.
It has been reported that consultants in England would call off the industrial action if they are offered the same inflation plus pay deal – a 12.4% rise – made to junior doctors in Scotland, it has been reported.
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How will this affect the public?
The NHS says the ongoing industrial action has affected roughly 600,000 hospital appointments across the NHS, with more than 365,000 staff absences recorded due to industrial action during this time. In previous action by junior doctors, between 21,000 and 24,000 staff a day were off due to industrial action, the NHS says.
During the most recent industrial action by junior doctors, 106,000 hospital appointments were disrupted over three days. A larger number is likely during the five-day strike.
Emergency care will continue to be available across all parts of the country. It is important that in emergency and life-threatening cases – when someone is seriously ill or their life is at risk – patients continue to come forward as normal.
What does the government have to say?
Doctors, nurses and some other healthcare professionals have voted against the government’s offer of 5% plus a non-consolidated payment.
The health secretary, Steve Barclay, has made it clear he considers demands of a 35% salary increase to be unreasonable. This month he suggested he would consider a larger offer than has been made to date, but only if strike action was called off.
