UK Doctors have embarked on strike despite PM Starmer ’s plea.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that thousands of junior doctors across the United Kingdom began a five-day strike on Friday, following the breakdown of negotiations with the Labour government over a new pay deal.
Picket lines formed outside hospitals in the early hours, after last-minute talks on Thursday night failed to yield an agreement. The strike marks a renewed wave of industrial action despite a previous pay offer amounting to a 22.3 percent increase over two years, which was accepted by doctors in September shortly after the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, came into power.
Junior doctors—those below the level of consultant—said the latest strike was necessary to address what they described as “pay erosion” dating back to 2008. According to the British Medical Association (BMA), real-term wages for junior doctors have fallen by more than 21 percent over the past two decades.
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“We’re not working 21 percent less hard, so why should our pay suffer?” said Melissa Ryan and Ross Nieuwoudt, co-chairs of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, in a joint statement.
Prime Minister Starmer, writing in The Times on Friday, urged the doctors to reconsider, warning that the strike would place immense pressure on the already-struggling National Health Service (NHS) and put patients at risk. “Launching a strike will mean everyone loses,” he said. “Lives will be blighted by this decision.”
He further implored junior doctors not to “follow” the BMA “down this damaging road,” stressing, “Our NHS and your patients need you.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting echoed the Prime Minister’s concerns in a letter published in The Telegraph, noting that while the government values the work of junior doctors, it “cannot afford to go further on pay this year.”
Under the previous Conservative administration, the BMA’s demand for a 35-percent “pay restoration” to offset a decade of inflation was firmly rejected. Since Labour took office, it has worked to settle disputes with other public sector workers, including teachers and train drivers. However, the government now faces renewed pressure as junior doctors rejoin a wave of protests that last year disrupted NHS services and led to thousands of cancelled appointments.
