DThousands of doctors began a five-day strike on Thursday, an unprecedented duration, to demand a pay hike amid a livelihood crisis. “Junior doctors”, whose status is similar to that of interns in France, begin a new strike from 7am on Thursday until Tuesday at the same time. According to the BMA (British Medical Association) union, this is their longest continuous mobilization in the history of the British public health service NHS, which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary.

In the United Kingdom, ‘junior doctors’ represent about half of a hospital’s doctors, ranging from young doctors fresh out of university to doctors with more than eight years’ experience. They have intensified strikes in recent months, causing many non-essential appointments to be postponed.read this also Doctors appointment: this system in Germany is the strictest in the world

BMA officials Robert Lawrenson and Vivek Trivedi said Thursday was “the start of the longest doctors’ strike in NHS history”. “If the British government follows the example of the Scottish government, we can call off this strike”, which led to the suspension of the movement, a new offer. He said the government’s ‘utter inflexibility’ is ‘disturbing’ and ‘ultimately disastrous for those who want waiting lists down and NHS staff up’.

“Major disruptions” planned

When it was announced at the end of June, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health deemed the new strike “extremely disappointing”, arguing that “these five days of strike will cause major disruption to patients and other categories of workers”. But there will be pressure.” NHS staff. The government believes the strikes should be suspended pending negotiations and has said it will continue discussions “if the strike is called off” and if the strikers back down from their “unreasonable wage demands”. ready to keep.read this also “Doctors in clinics to do more on-call duty”

The BMA union says that since 2008, when the health services austerity package was imposed, junior doctors have lost 26% of their pay in real terms. The union is demanding a 35 per cent hike in salaries, which the government opposes.

dmp