NHS strikes: Junior Doctors begin the biggest health walkout yet

Today health services are facing ‘unparalleled’ disruption as Junior Doctors have hit the picket lines to take part in the longest doctors’ strike in the history of the NHS.

This morning, at precisely 7am, Junior Doctors swapped their scrubs for coats and banners has they headed to picket lines across in England to strike over their rate of pay. The strikes are due to last until 7am on Saturday morning.

Following the decision to stage such a huge walkout, Unions and the government have been urged to quickly set up pay negotiations as NHS bosses have warned that there is a heightened risk to patient safety over the next four days and will only get worse if future strikes are planned.

It has been estimated that around 350,000 appointments and operations have had to be rescheduled as a result of the action as senior doctors and other medical professionals have been asked to cover services such as A&E and maternity care.

NHS managers have said patient care is on a ‘knife-edge’ and ‘very fragile’ because of the stoppage by members of the British Medical Association – the trade union and professional body for doctors and medical students in the UK.

However, new advertisements by the BMA show how much Junior Doctors are paid for their role in surgical procedures, arguably  justifying their decision to launch a four-day long strike. In the advertisement, three doctors with 10, seven and one year’s experience are pictured in an operating theatre where an appendix is being removed, one of the thousands of similar operations that takes place every day in England.

For the 60-minute procedure, they would be paid £28, £24.46 and £14.09, which overall equates to £66.55 spilt between the three doctors who would have just completed a life-saving procedure, says the BMA. The union has estimated that the pay of Junior Doctors has decreased by 26% in real terms over the past 15 years.

Now, Junior Doctors are striking to receive a 35% increase in pay which would sit above the current level of inflation.

Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, the BMA Junior Doctors Committee Co-Chairs, said: ‘It is appalling that this government feels that paying three junior doctors as little as £66.55 between them for work of this value is justified.

‘This is highly skilled work requiring years of study and intensive training in a high-pressure environment where the job can be a matter of life and death.

‘Why then has the government allowed Junior Doctor pay to be cut in real terms by over a quarter in the last 15 years?’

The Junior Doctors strike that has started today follows months of other industrial action that was undergone by nurses and ambulance workers, however these have now been brought to a standstill after unions entered pay talks with the government.

Image: Luis Melendez