2023-08-11 17:18:42
He hard confrontation between England’s main medical union and the Rishi Sunak government is far from over. The doctors have started this Friday a new day of strikeswhich will last until Tuesday, and whose main objective is improve remuneration of the medical residents. The positions between the two parties remain very far apart and it is highly unlikely that they will reach an agreement in the coming days, despite the fact that the strong impact that the strikes are having in the National Health Service (NHS, in its acronym in English) are seriously damaging the image of the Executive.
The resident doctors demand a 35% increase in wages to compensate for the loss in value of their salaries since 2008. Something that is very far from what has been proposed so far by the Government: the last offer Presented by Altar in mid-July contemplates an increase in 6%, plus a fixed annual supplement of £1,250 (about 1,500 euros). The prime minister insists that he is complying with the recommendations of the independent bodies, created to advise the Government in the review of the remuneration of public workers, and has made it clear that does not plan to make new offers.
exchange of accusations
The Chief Secretary of the Treasury, John Glen, has been in charge this Friday of charging against the resident doctors. “A 35% salary increasewhich is what they ask for, is completely improbable. It would send the completely wrong signal to the economy and to the general public at a time when, obviously, the inflationary pressures are the main priority of the Government”, said the number two of the Ministry of Finance to Sky News. “We ask the doctors to put end to strikes and start caring for the patient.”
The representatives of the main union country doctor, British Medical Association (BMA, in its acronym in English), have accused the Executive of “manipulate” independent organizations and have regretted the disbursement of 1,000 million euros of public money to cover the expenses derived from the strikes. “This 1,000 million pounds equals the cost of the full restoration of wages last October,” explained the co-chairman of the union Robert Laurenson to the ITV channel. “This dispute it no longer makes sense. Is purely ideological From Rishi Sunak’s point of view, it has nothing to do with patient care, or profitability, or economic viability.”
Waiting lists
The new protests come just one day after the publication of the timeouts on the NHS in England, who have reached a new record since records began to be made in 2007. They are 7.6 million people Those who are currently waiting to start their treatments in public health are three million more than at the start of the pandemic. These data have put the Altarwho made the reduction of waiting times one of his main promises at the beginning of the year and who presented an ambitious plan to strengthen the recruitment and training of health professionals until 2030. But the doctors’ unions insist they need short-term solutions.
This is the fifth time in which resident doctors decide call strikes this year. Some strikes that are causing greater delays in health care. According to the NHS, about 800,000 queries have had to be postponed for now due to the protests and foreseeably will exceed a million in this new call.
“Los patients are enduring the worst part of ongoing strikes across the NHS, and new BMA protests [el principal sindicato médico del país] they will make it postpone more appointments and procedures“, the Minister of Health has alerted this week, Steve Barclay. The minister has shown himself willing to “improve the working life of doctors”, but has ruled out further salary increases because they would imply an alteration of the Executive’s plans to reduce inflationof 7.9% in the month of June.
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