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UK NHS junior doctors walk out over pay

Tuesday, 14 March 2023 2:41 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 14 March 2023 2:41 AM ]

Saeed Pourreza
PRESS TV, London

Overworked, underpaid, and burdened with student loans is a situation facing tens of thousands of these junior doctors on a three-day strike across England.

Aada is a trainee anesthetist in London on 23 dollars an hour. Some are even worse off. When they start out in the profession, junior doctors are paid nearly 17 dollars an hour, a rate they say does not keep pace with the double digit inflation.

Financial struggles and burnout is driving staff out of Britain's health service already grappling with record high patient waiting lists, which stand at above seven million as of January this year.

Today's action means hundreds of thousands of cancelled appointments across the country.

All of that, the doctors say, a result of the tough pandemic period, under-funding, and a more than 25 percent cut to their take-home over 15 years that has left them demoralized.

The walkout by junior doctors, who make up around 40 percent of the medical workforce, comes on the heels of a wave of industrial actions by nurses, ambulance workers and other staff. The government says the 35 percent pay demand from the doctors is unaffordable.

On the eve of the work stoppage, the government offered to talk if the walkout was cancelled. Unions such as the British Medical Association, are warning the strikes could continue into next year unless their demands are met.

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