Doctors in England walk off job over pay dispute

LONDON — Tens of thousands of doctors in England walked off the job Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, for another four-day stretch, with growing concerns that their bitter pay dispute with the British government will drag on into the winter.

The fifth round of strikes by doctors at the early stages of their careers is set to last until 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, Aug. 15. Some of the junior doctors on strike started their first jobs in the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) only days ago.

The action by junior doctors, who do much of the routine work in hospitals and who work very long hours, will inevitably add to the backlog at the embattled health service. According to the NHS, the number of procedures and appointments being canceled or rearranged is set to hit one million by the time the doctors return to work.

The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents the approximately 75,000 junior doctors, has been asking for a 35 percent pay bump to get pay back to 2008 levels once inflation is taken into account. But the government is only offering them six percent with an additional consolidated increase, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has insisted there will be no more discussions.

Junior doctor Sumi Manirajan, deputy co-chair of the BMA’s UK doctor committee, said she sees colleagues at “burnout point” every day.

“All we’re asking for is our pay to go back to the 2008 levels. We’re not asking for a pay rise,” the 29-year-old said at a picket line outside University College Hospital in north London.

For its part, the government insists that its pay offer is fair and that meeting the pay demand would further stoke inflation across the UK. / AP