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Britain Prepares For First Mass Doctor Strike In 40 Years Because Of Disputes Over Pay And Work Hours

By Janice Malcolm
Published on: 05:58 PST, Jan 5, 2016

The British government has been trying to talk the junior doctors in their state-funded health service out of the planned mass walkouts that the British Medical Association (BMA) has planned after talks between them broke down late on Monday. The three strikes that are planned will be the first of its kind in Britain in over 40 years.

The proposed strikes are about the new and imposing employment contracts that the government has in store for the junior doctors. The stance the BMA has taken is because they believe that the contracts fail to provide the needed safeguards against doctors having dangerously long working hours nor does it give proper recognition to doctors working unsocial hours (nights and weekends). The contracts stipulate an 11 percent pay increase but at the expense of other areas.

Last year, the National Health Service (NHS) faced a year-end deficit of £2.9 billion, and they are keen on trying to cut down costs. UPI outlined that with this goal in mind, the new junior doctor contracts are designed to allow for more services to be provided to patients seven days a week and also help to improve the waiting times patients have to endure. Currently, weekend employees are paid at a higher rate, but the new contract would have 12 hours on Saturdays paid at the regular rate and also extend the regular pay rate to three unsocial hours each weekday evening.

The government has insisted that the contract is an effort to ensure patients get the “same quality of care across the week.” But studies show that many doctors run the risk of mental health issues if their needs are always secondary.

The walkouts were initially planned for before Christmas and were suspended so the government and the British Medical Association could have further talks about the pay and working conditions that the doctors were living with. The BMA has stated that the government has left them with very little choice but to strike since the government has failed to properly address the concerns. BMA chairman Mark Porter has stated that all it would take to have the strikes called off is for the government to be serious in their negotiations.

“In order for them (the strikes) to be called off, the government would have to recognize the deeply held concerns of the junior doctors and be able to go rather further than it had been able to push itself over Christmas… The government has repeatedly dragged its feet throughout this process, initially rejecting our offer of talks and failing to make significant movement during negotiations.”

According to BBC News, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said there was no need for the plan to go forward as he believed they were making progress in the talks. Hunt calls it “unnecessary” and says that “it is extremely disappointing that the BMA has chosen to take industrial action which helps no-one.” The NHS is proposing that the doctors would not be allowed to work more than four nights consecutively, but also that since hospitals tend to have three times less staff on weekends due to the inability to hire additional workers at the weekend rate, a balance must be struck. Hunt states that the negotiations were progressing, especially in the areas of inputting safeguards against overworked doctors and felt the issue of pay was next in line for progress.

The first of the walkouts is scheduled for next week Tuesday and will likely lead to a halt in thousands of non-emergency operations and the cancellation of numerous hospital appointments. About 99 percent of the BMA’s 37,000 junior doctors voted in favor of strikes.

The planned strike will see the participating junior doctors only providing emergency care for 24 hours beginning at 8 a.m. next Tuesday. Starting January 26, they would only provide 48 hours of emergency services, and a total shutdown would commence on February 10 if the contract disputes have not been resolved.

[Image via Mark Agnor/Shutterstock]

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