By Enyichukwu Enemanna
For the 15th time in just three years, doctors in England on Tuesday staged a walk out in an increasingly bitter dispute with the government over pay and jobs.
The six-day of down tooling by resident doctors, those below consultant level comes after the doctors secured a 28.9 percent increase over three years following previous strikes.
The government and the resident doctors are deadlocked over a fresh demand for a further big pay increase, to serve as compensation for what the doctors say is a real-time loss of earnings due to inflation.
Health Minister Wes Streeting condemned the decision by the doctors’ union to reject the government’s latest offer of 4.9 percent amid an ongoing cost of living crisis.
Streeting told BBC television the doctors had been the “standout winners of the entire public sector workforce when it comes to pay rises”.
He accused the union of rushing to strike action despite the earlier “whopping” pay rise, adding the strike would cost the state-funded National Health Service £300 million ($3.9 million).
AFP quoted the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents the doctors, as demanding full pay restoration to 2008 levels.
The UK government has repeatedly said that in the current economic environment it is impossible to meet their demands.
Streeting has already agreed to the doctors’ union’s demand that UK-trained medics get priority for training posts over candidates from foreign nations.
