The head of the NHS has warned that patients should inhibit themselves for the possibility of a doctor’s strike to Christmas.
Young doctors enter the third day of the five -day strike on Sunday, and NHS leaders warn that it is almost inevitable in the coming months. The latest talks between the Ministry of Health and the British Medical Association (BMA) have made little progress.
“This can be a marathon,” said David Parry, CEO of the University of London College (UCH) and NHS CEO. We can do it to Christmas or perhaps beyond. ” The Sunday TimesHuman
Young doctors have a strike task that runs until January 6, but union leaders have suggested that industrial measures can exacerbate this fall.
Middle -grade consultants and doctors showed striking votes last week in response to a 4 % government payment proposal, which they named “insult”. The votes are close on September 1.
Elsewhere in the NHS, the GMB Union is investigating action between ambulances and hospital staff after 67 % of members rejecting a 3.6 percent payment offering on Friday. The Royal College of Nursing is also set to announce the outcome of this week’s voting and reports its “intense participation”.
Sir Jim Mack, CEO of NHS Britain, warned that the effort would be too much to reduce the hospital’s waiting time during a long period of disruption.
“We know that continuing disruption in the coming months can be a snowball effect for patients and staff,” he said. “We’ve seen this before, and over the past year it has been working hard to reduce the waiting list and waiting times.”
Despite trying to restart the conversation, tensions have increased in recent days. Tom Dolphin, chairman of the BMA Council, said that the union consulted with lawyers after both Jim and Health Secretary, Wes Steging, saying they may try to limit strike doctors from local shifts, often the main source of income.
Young doctors call for a 26 percent increase in wages to reverse what BMA says is a decline in real salaries since 2008. The government argues that it has already acted. Last year, Mr String gave young doctors a 28.7 percent increase in wages over three years, ending the previous wave of strikes.
But doctors say the increase in wage erosion and still reduces salaries in 2008, especially given the severe inflation from 2021.
However, there are signs that the general support for strikes begins to slip. Last week, a poll by Yougov showed that only 34 % of people support strikes, down from 59 percent in March 2023. Now the majority of 52 percent say they disagree.
