a doctors’ strike of unprecedented length denounces the hemorrhage affecting hospitals

In the United Kingdom, the strike of young doctors reaches an unprecedented duration. They are still very far from obtaining an increase in their salary, but if their ambulance colleagues and nurses returned to work in 2023, they are not letting go of the strike picket.

From Wednesday January 3 and for the next six days, English hospitals will not be able to count on their interns. This is unprecedented, young British doctors have never agreed to stop work for so long. Six consecutive days, after regular walkouts of one or two days in 2023, this time the movement is getting tougher.

This is the result of fruitless negotiations last fall with the government. These “junior doctors” consider themselves underpaid and overworked. While some criticize them for triggering this new strike period in the heart of winter, when patients need them most, a young surgeon responds: “Whether it’s winter or the rest of the year, the pressure is the same in hospitals. There is always a saturation of patients in any hospital in the country. In the corridors of emergency services, people are waiting in wheelchairs, simply because there are not enough staff to take care of them.”

“People leave because they are better paid elsewhere”

The NHS (National Health Service), the public health system, which the British hold dear, is unable to turn its head around. The UK is at the bottom of the OECD rankings for Western European countries, with just over three practicing doctors per 1,000 people. The profession is struggling to recruit, the NHS rate for the 70,000 interns in the country is 16 euros per hour. These young striking doctors are demanding an overall increase of 35%, with constant and progressive readjustment over several years.

Questioned on the picket line by a local London radio station, a first-year surgeon warned that the government should not be surprised by the lack of manpower: if we cannot find young doctors on the job market, it’s because salaries are too low. “Conditions are bad because people leave, and people leave because they are better paid elsewhere, he castigates. When Australia offers them twice their salary, we can’t blame them. All we are asking is that doctors in their first year be paid 23 euros per hour. I don’t think your listeners would criticize a doctor for being paid 23 euros an hour.”

Heavy loans to repay

Especially since most of these young doctors are already very indebted when they start working. This is one of their arguments for a salary increase. Almost all of them have a student loan to repay, on average 70,000 euros. The BMA (British Medical Association), the main union of British doctors, estimates that with inflation young doctors have lost 26% of remuneration since 2008.

In this context, we understand better why young interns are turning to Australia. Better salary, better working environment, better controlled working hours too… More and more of them are leaving. We are not yet talking about mass exile, but about a fairly serious trend.