UK government has accused hospital doctors of harming patients.
Gatekeepers News reports that the hospital doctors launched their latest walkout on Friday to demand a 35-percent pay increase.
The four-day stoppage comes with health chiefs estimating that the repeated industrial action had cost the publicly funded health service £1 billion ($1.2 billion).
Meanwhile, British Medical Association (BMA) which represents junior doctors argued that their take-home pay has fallen by 26 percent in the last 15 years.
On the other hand, Health Secretary Steve Barclay issued his strongest condemnation, stating that the doctors have rejected the government’s pay offer of six percent plus a one-off payment of £1,250.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Barclay accused the BMA of “acting recklessly”.
He stressed that the strike action served “only to harm patients and put further pressure on their own colleagues.”
However, doctors on the picket line outside University College Hospital in central London hospital, said they had no choice but to strike to restore pay levels and stop doctors leaving the state-funded National Health Service (NHS).
“Full pay restoration must happen, that’s not for negotiation, what is for negotiation is how it is structured and what the time frame is,” Robert Laurenson,
A doctor and co-chair of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, Robert Laurenson, told AFP that “Full pay restoration must happen, that’s not for negotiation, what is for negotiation is how it is structured and what the time frame is.
“This is predominantly about pay because we know that many of our colleagues leave to go to other countries and other industries simply because the pay is too poor to be able to retain doctors.”
Junior doctors are physicians who are not senior specialists but who may still have years of experience. They make up about half of the doctors in UK hospitals.
The strike is their fifth round of industrial action.
Deputy co-chair of the committee, junior doctor Sumi Manirajan said, “Doctors are working tirelessly to bring waiting lists down. The government are the ones who refuse to come to the table.
“We are chronically understaffed and everyone is at breaking point.” he added.
The NHS is grappling with record patient waiting times due to a large pandemic backlog.
According to data published by the NHS on Thursday, a record 7.6 million people in England were waiting to start routine hospital treatment in June.
Chief Executive of NHS Providers, Julian Hartley said the series of strikes by junior doctors had cost the NHS £1 billion ($1.2 billion).
Hospitals were having to “pay premium rates to consultants” to cover for the medics, he told BBC radio.
Nurses, ambulance staff and other medical workers have all joined picket lines in recent months, mounting more pressure on the NHS.
Meanwhile, the government has said its pay offer announced in mid-July is “final” and urged the BMA to drop its pay demand “immediately”.
