DExtra caution is the order of the day in the UK this week. “There’s no point in hiding the fact that there are risks for patients,” warned Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, an umbrella organization for the UK’s national health service.
His key advice: “Try to avoid risky behavior because the NHS will not be able to deliver the range of care it wants to offer.” Taylor’s warning comes ahead of the longest-ever health strike in Britain.
The Junior Doctors have been on strike since the morning of April 11th. These are doctors who have completed their studies and are in training to become specialists or general practitioners, a step that takes between five and eleven years full-time, depending on their specialization. Their walkout carries weight: they make up around 45 per cent of NHS medical workers.
They only return to the hospitals on Saturday, after a 96-hour walkout. 350,000 surgeries and doctor’s appointments scheduled for this time are likely to be canceled due to a preference for serious illness and emergencies, the NHS estimates. And the consequences will be noticeable for some time beyond that due to the necessary changes to the work schedules.
“It’s going to be an incredibly tough week. For 10 or 11 days the NHS will not be able to operate at full capacity,” Taylor warned. The strike could be one of the most difficult periods in the NHS’s 75-year history, observers warn.
The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents the interests of junior doctors, is demanding a wage adjustment of 35 percent. This is to compensate for 15 years of wage erosion. Health Secretary Steve Barclay criticized this demand as “unreasonable” and emphasized his disappointment that the strike could not be averted.
Real public sector wages fell 7.7 percent
Since last spring, large parts of the public sector in Great Britain have been repeatedly affected by strikes. Nursing staff, railway workers, ambulance drivers, bus drivers, public defenders and teachers, as well as employees at motorway maintenance depots, the passport office and in the ministries have repeatedly gone on strike.
At its heart, given the high inflation and years of extreme government spending controls, it’s about salaries. Between January 2021 and September 2022, real wages fell by 7.7 percent in the public sector and 1.5 percent in the private sector.
The government’s negotiating partners have so far made few concessions, pointing out that higher wages could further fuel inflation. So far, agreements have only been reached in a few cases, including those involving the public defenders in court and employees in railway operations. Three out of four unions in which nursing staff are organized have recommended that their members agree to the improved wage offer in the ongoing vote.
But in most areas no agreement is in sight. At the beginning of April, around 1,000 employees in the passport offices stopped work for five weeks. Teachers have turned down an improved wage offer and announced more days of strikes for late April and early May.
For patients, the timing of the doctors’ strike is particularly delicate. Traditionally, after the long Easter weekend, more treatments are needed, and at the same time staffing has been thinned out because employees have planned Easter vacation. In addition, the NHS is still dealing with the consequences of postponed treatments due to the last three-day break in mid-March.
British doctors are migrating abroad
According to the BMA, salaries for junior doctors have shrunk by 26 percent since the financial crisis. In the first year of training, the doctors would earn less than a barista in a café with an hourly wage of 14 pounds (15.95 euros). The young doctors earn around 29,000 pounds (33,069 euros) a year, and they get an average of around 30 percent more if they work night and weekend shifts. This base salary more or less doubles by the end of their specialist training.
The demands are not just about the doctors, but also about medical care. “The government’s lack of investment in salaries is making it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain junior doctors,” the BMA said.
The number of medical staff who go abroad has been rising continuously for years. There were almost 7,000 last year, a quarter more than in 2021. Among other things, Australia is considered an attractive destination, where the medical sector promises higher salaries and better equipped clinics.
In the UK, on the other hand, one in eleven NHS positions is vacant, at the same time as the health problems of an aging society are increasing. There is a shortage of staff in almost all medical areas, and this is especially true for general practitioners.
The pressure on the employees is correspondingly high. In a survey last year of 600,000 nurses and medical professionals, 17 percent said they plan to quit their job once they find another job.
Adaptation of training places for doctors
For the spring, the government has announced extensive staff planning, drawn up with representatives of the NHS and other representatives of the healthcare industry. An important aspect: an adjustment of the training places for doctors.
They are currently capped at 7500 in England. However, in view of growing competition for medical staff – the World Health Organization assumes that there will be a shortage of 10 million doctors and nurses worldwide by 2030 – an adjustment may be necessary here.
However, more staff alone is not a solution: According to a study by Ben Zaranko of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, however, the productivity of the NHS has declined since the pandemic, despite increasing numbers of employees. The efficiency of the system also comes into focus.
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