This walkout strike by the Junior Doctors from UK has created history. What were the demands of the doctors?

Junior doctors in the United Kingdom have had the longest walkout from their jobs in the history of National Health Service. On 3rd of January, the junior doctors of UK started a six-day strike to protest against the not so good working situations along with the steep decline in the payment in the last 16 years. The strike has been expected to bring disruption to the critical health services.

The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that a cost-of-living crisis as well as below pay increases the risk of doctors walking out of their profession. The BMA expressed that such a situation could have a cascading impact on the health services of the United Kingdom.

Reason behind the protest by junior doctors in the United Kingdom

The British Medical Association has demanded for a "full pay restoration" in order to reverse the pay cuts caused by the global financial crisis of 2008, which led the United Kingdom to fall into a recession since the second Word War. The Association expressed that the government should put in guardrails in order to prevent any declines in the future against the cost of living and bring a reform to the institutional process surrounding pay increases to protest the retention of junior doctors.

There exists a pay dispute between health providers and the government since late 2022. Consultants, radiographers, junior doctors and nurses stages a total of 16 strikes in the last 14 months, as per the NHS England data. The junior doctors of the United Kingdom have underwent official training in order to become specialists. This is actually a level below the consultants. The most recent NHS England data demonstrates that there are over 75,000 junior doctors in the workforce. The average annual NHS earnings of these doctors lie between £55,420 and £57,118. Junior doctors are actually earning less, but are working for more hours. A situation like this has led in high burnout levels in doctors, as suggested by the BMA.

The recent walkout is actually the ninth walkout by junior doctors in the United Kingdom. Previous such strikes stopped for three to six days. Last summer held the initial talks which led the government to agree to an average increase of a total of 8.8 percent. This however is seen as insufficient by the doctors. Since the year 2008, the pay of doctors has decreased by more than a quarter. The BMA has urged for an increase in the pay by 35 percent. However, the Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said the demand is "simply unaffordable."