English doctors to strike in face-off with government over pay
LONDON: Resident doctors in England will begin a five-day strike on Friday (Jul 25) over pay, challenging Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government, which came to power promising to end industrial unrest.
The government has refused to meet the pay demands of the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents the resident doctors, qualified physicians who make up nearly half of the UK’s medical workforce.
The BMA argues that the 5.4 per cent pay rise awarded this year does little to address real-terms salary cuts accumulated over more than a decade, reigniting tensions that once again threaten to disrupt services at the publicly-funded National Health Service (NHS).
DOCTORS SAY STRIKE IS ABOUT MORE THAN PAY
From 0600 GMT on Friday, doctors will return to picket lines outside hospitals, in scenes reminiscent of 2023 when soaring inflation and stagnant wages pushed NHS staff to strike en masse.
“We don’t want to strike, but we have to,” said Bishoy Yassa, a 24-year-old recently qualified resident doctor. “Even after fair negotiations... we were completely ignored.”
“There’s a misconception that doctors are being greedy,” he added. “This isn’t just about pay. This is about getting the government to listen to the state of the NHS.”
GOVERNMENT WARNS STRIKE IS ‘RECKLESS’
After forming a government last year, Labour had quickly brokered a 22 per cent pay deal with doctors. But amid growing strain on public finances, the government has refused to go beyond a 5.4 per cent increase this year.
Health Minister Wes Streeting criticised the BMA’s decision to proceed with the strike.
“All I asked of them (BMA leadership) was the postponement of strikes for a few weeks so we could work together on a detailed package that could form an offer to you to end this dispute,” Streeting wrote in a letter to doctors, which was posted on X on Thursday.
PUBLIC SUPPORT WANING AS DOCTORS DIVIDED
Public support for the strikes has dipped, according to a YouGov poll conducted on Monday. Among 4,954 adults surveyed, 52 per cent now oppose the action, while only 34 per cent remain in favour. In May, 48 per cent had opposed the strikes and 39 per cent supported them.
Even among doctors, opinions on the strike are divided.
“I would like for a settlement to be achieved very soon and in the absence of strike action which doesn’t help anybody and which nobody wants,” said 33-year-old resident doctor and BMA member Adam Boggon, who told Reuters he had voted against the strike.
The walkout threatens to deepen the NHS’s ongoing struggles with staffing shortages and long wait times as the government faces pressure to balance worker demands with fiscal constraints.
