The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 15th September 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 15th September 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Next week sees the unusual spectacle of NHS consultants taking to the picket line on Tuesday and Wednesday. The details are that next Tuesday consultants will deliver ‘Christmas Day’ levels of staffing only while junior doctors will work as usual, while on Wednesday both junior doctors and consultants will deliver Christmas Day levels of staffing only.
Christmas day staffing does not mean visits from Santa Claus. It means emergency care will be provided but that no elective care should take place. Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd will see a full walk-out of junior doctors with consultants working as usual. Later, if their demands are not met, and that is unlikely, both consultants and junior doctors will provide only Christmas Day levels of staffing on the first Monday to Wednesday of October 2023.
Striking doctors have seen their wages drastically fall in recent years. It is not just in Britain that the medical profession has taken to the picket line. Last year doctors went on strike or held protest rallies in France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Turkey. Apart from pay, they raised have staffing issues and complain of overwork.
Back home, the British Medical Association (BMA) complains that the hourly rate for newly-qualified doctors is £14.09 per hour while Pret-a-manger pays its coffee makers a penny more at £14.10. The £14.09 rate equals a 26 per cent real-terms pay cut since 2008.
In the light of that, it is unsurprising that junior doctors have voted 98 per cent in favour of a new six-month mandate that will add to the five strikes held earlier this year.
BMA junior doctor committee co-chairs Dr Rob Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi warned that: “We are prepared to continue with our industrial action, but we don’t have to, the Prime Minister has the power to halt any further action by making us a credible offer.”
The BMA wants a 35 per cent pay rise to compensate for 15 years of below-inflation wage rises. In response, the Government has given junior doctors six per cent plus £1,250, which translates into nearly nine per cent.
The Government said there will be no more talks because that was the final settlement, pointing out they had agreed to pay what the independent pay review body had recommended. This should not be taken too seriously.
One of the major NHS unions, Unite, has condemned the Government’s pay body, which is supposed to be impartial but as was argued at the TUC: “The pay body chair is hand-picked by the prime minister and the seven members are chosen by the health minister. The government rigs the rules by setting strict levels that the body must base its decision on before the process has even kicked off.”
The BMA is holding a rally outside the Tory Party conference on Tuesday 3rd October to press their case.