England doctors start their ‘longest’ strike in health system history

Unite union members protest at the Guys and St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. Pic/AP

Britain's state-funded health care service is facing what is being described as its longest-ever strike as tens of thousands of doctors in England launched a five-day walkout over pay on Thursday.

So-called junior doctors, those who are at the early stages of their careers in the National Health Service in the years after medical school, started their latest strike at 7 am, with many of them making their case for a 35 per cent pay rise in picket lines outside hospitals across England.

The British Medical Association, the doctors' union, has asked for a 35 per cent pay rise to bring junior doctors' pay back to 2008 levels once inflation is taken into account. Meanwhile, the workload of England's 75,000 or so junior doctors has swelled as patient waiting lists for treatment are at record highs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The government, which is facing an array of strikes by public workers across many sectors, is standing firm to its position that it won't negotiate while the strikes are taking place. Britain, like other countries, is grappling with high inflation for the first time in years.

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