It follows a 72-hour strike earlier this month in response to the government’s failure to bend on its promise of a 5% pay raise.
In an ongoing dispute over wages, hospital doctors in England launched the longest strike in the history of the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) on Friday.
According to the British Medical Association, junior doctors (those below consultant level) will strike for five days.
The strike will begin at 7:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) on July 13 and end at the same hour on July 18.
The walkout comes only days after the NHS celebrates its 75th anniversary.
It follows a 72-hour strike earlier this month in response to the government’s failure to bend on its promise of a 5% pay raise.
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The fresh strike is described as “extremely disappointing” by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman.
“It jeopardises patient safety and our efforts to reduce wait times,” he told reporters, insisting that the government’s offer was “fair and reasonable.”
However, doctors estimate they have experienced a 26% wage loss in real terms over the last 15 years as salaries have failed to keep up with inflation.
They want salary restored to 2008-2009 levels, but the administration says it would imply a 35 percent pay increase this year, which is too expensive.
The BMA junior doctors’ committee is co-chaired by Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi.
They said the government appears focused on allowing the NHS to “decline to the point of collapse.”
BMA Study
According to a BMA study, more over half (53%) of the roughly 2,000 junior doctors who replied had received offers to relocate abroad in the previous four months.
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According to them, the South Australian state government even paid for advertising trucks to be dispatched to picket lines.
This offers greater remuneration if physicians emigrated.
A “Credible Offer”
Laurenson and Trivedi claimed the government refused to restart pay negotiations.
This prompted them to launch “the longest single walkout by doctors in NHS history”.
They said, that if the government makes a “credible offer” on salary restoration, the strike might be avoided.
The strike comprises the physicians, nurses, and other medical workers over wages and working conditions that are below inflation.
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It hampers patient service, prompting appointments to be canceled or rescheduled.
Officials claim it has hampered services at a time when the service is battling to clear a massive backlog.
This was as a result of treatment created by years of underfunding and understaffing, as well as the Covid-19 epidemic.
On July 5, the NHS will celebrate its 75th anniversary.
It was established in 1948 to provide free health care “from the cradle to the grave” and is funded by general taxation.
