British junior doctors embark on strike over pay dispute

British junior doctors embark on strike over pay dispute

Thousands of junior doctors have gone on strike across England as the dispute with the British Government over pay continues.

The 72-hour walkout by medics who can have up to eight years of experience as a hospital doctor or three years in general practice ran until 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Saturday and is expected to lead to thousands of National Health Service appointments and operations being cancelled.

This latest development follows a warning by NHS chiefs that the number of people seeking emergency help would rise as the hot weather continued across the UK.

NHS leaders have said that urgent and emergency care would remain the priority.

The strike is the third this year by junior doctors and is expected to cause mass disruption.

There have also been concerns about staffing, with some consultants saying they would not provide strike cover unless their employers agreed to a higher overtime rate.

The British Medical Association is calling for “full restoration” of pay, which it says has seen a 26 per cent cut.

The Government has offered five per cent to end the dispute.

Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairmen of the BMA junior doctors committee, said in a statement that “Junior doctors are in despair at this government’s refusal to listen.

“It should never have taken two whole rounds of strike action to even put a number on the table.

“And for that number to be a 5 per cent pay offer in a year of double-digit inflation, itself another pay cut beggars belief.

“We have made it clear that junior doctors are looking for the full restoration of our pay, which has seen a 26 per cent cut,’’ it noted.

The junior doctors in England had seen their pay cut in real terms by more than a quarter over the last 15 years.

The statement added, “Today, they are demonstrating what that means to the survival of the NHS.”