UK doctors embark on longest strike in NHS history over pay rise

Junior doctors under the British Medical Association (BMA) have embarked on yet another strike over their demand for increased salaries.

The strike, which will be the longest in the history of the National Health Service (NHS), kicked off on Wednesday and will last till January 9.

This is the fifth time the doctors would be staging a walkout in 10 months.

They had previously gone on strike in 2023 from July 13 to July 17, June 14 to June 17, for 96 hours in April and 72 hours in March.

The association is demanding a 35 percent pay rise after suffering a “pay erosion” of 26 percent over the last 15 years, as wages have failed to keep up with inflation.

In a statement on Wednesday, Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi, co-chairs of the junior doctors committee, called on the UK health secretary to make a credible offer on pay which could bring an end to the strikes.

The co-chairs said the doctors spent the holiday period hoping to receive the ‘final offer’ promised by the secretary but got nothing of such.

“Doctors would have liked to start the new year with the hope of an offer on pay that would lead to a better-staffed health service and a better-valued profession,” the statement reads.

“Instead, doctors are still set to be paid £15.50 an hour and are being forced to go back out on strike by a Government that cannot get its act together and make the reasonable offer on pay it knows it eventually must.

“We will continue to offer to meet throughout these coming strikes. All we need is a credible offer we can put to members and we can call off these strikes.

“This strike marks another unhappy record for the NHS — the longest single walkout in its history.

“But as we have said all along, there is no need for any records to fall: we can call off this strike now if we get an offer from Government that we can put to members.

“Doctors want 2024 to be the start of a renewed workforce which can finally provide high quality care for patients again — it is for the Government to put forward a credible offer and facilitate that journey.”