by AFP
Thousands of hospital doctors are leaving Britain’s latest strike
British hospital doctors began a three-day strike over pay on Monday, the start of a week that will also see teachers, train staff and civil servants quit in the latest spate of industrial action. Doctors say salaries have been below inflation for years, but increases mean they’ve effectively had a 26 percent pay cut since 2008. Before the hiatus, the body she represents, the British Medical Association (BMA), launched an advertising campaign claiming a newly qualified doctor was earning less than some cafe staff. “Pret a Manger has announced that it will pay up to £14.10 ($17.13) an hour,” reads the ad. “A junior doctor only earns £14.09. Thanks to this government, you can serve more coffee than save patients. This week junior doctors will go on strike to be paid what they deserve. Sinc Last year Britain was plagued by strikes across the economy, from nurses and ambulance workers to lawyers and dockers, fueled by soaring food, energy and housing costs. They have all clashed with the government, which insists the country cannot afford anti-inflation pay rises. The strike of the so-called junior doctors – a category of doctors who are not high-ranking specialists but can nonetheless have decades of experience – is the longest strike they have ever conducted. According to the BMA, junior doctors in England, who mainly work in hospitals but sometimes also in the practices of general practitioners, have seen their salaries cut by 26 percent in real terms since 2008/09. – Public support – “The problem for my youngest colleagues is that they are financially burdened with debt and their income doesn’t give them the security they should expect,” Vincent McCaughen, 37, who is studying to be a cardiologist, told AFP “People who feel more financially secure, who have a standard of living that hasn’t deteriorated, will be able to direct more of their emotional energy toward their patients,” he said on a picket line outside St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in the Central London. Doctors and nurses have repeatedly warned of this poor pay and conditions are driving UK-trained medical and nursing staff into an era with record waiting lists, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic backlog, telling them they are more than a quarter fewer are worth than 2008?” said Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the BMA Junior Medical Committee, in a joint statement. Some 80 doctors and supporters joined a picket line outside Leeds General Infirmary in the northern city. A settled A stream of motorists signaled their support by honking their car horns as doctors chanted “Claps don’t pay the bills,” a reference to the country’s weekly routine of applauding health care workers during the pandemic, underlining it again why we’re doing this,” said Chris Morris, a physician and BMA representative right Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the BMA’s decision to go ahead with the strike was “incredibly disappointing”. had refused to enter into formal wage negotiations on condition that the strikes would be suspended. he added.har/phz/ea
