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Free Malaysia Today
10-07-2025
- Health
- Free Malaysia Today
Junior doctors in England announce 5-day strike over pay demand
The doctors accepted a 22% pay rise last year, covering 2023 to 2025, ending months of previous strikes. (EPA Images pic) LONDON : Junior doctors in England will go on strike from July 25-30, their trade union said today, after the British government said it could not meet their demands for an improved pay deal this year. Junior doctors, also known as resident doctors and who make up a large share of the medical workforce, were offered an average 5.4% pay rise but are asking for 29%, which they say is necessary to address years of salary erosion in real terms. Health minister Wes Streeting called the strikes 'completely unreasonable' in a statement after the five-day walk-out was announced. He had said in a letter to the British Medical Association, the doctors' union, earlier that the government could not go any higher on pay this year. 'The NHS recovery is hanging by a thread, and the BMA are threatening to pull it,' he said. 'The BMA should abandon their rush to strike and work with us to improve resident doctors' working lives instead.' The doctors had accepted a 22% pay rise last year covering 2023-2025, which had ended months of previous strikes. The new strikes threaten to once again disrupt thousands of appointments and procedures at Britain's hospitals just as the government said it had started to improve services at the state-funded National Health Service. 'Without a credible offer to keep us on the path to restore our pay, we have no choice but to call strikes,' the co-chairs of the BMA's resident doctors' committee said in a statement. The BMA said it had met Streeting today but that the government wanted to focus on improving the non-pay elements of doctors' work.
The Sun
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Wes Streeting should know he has backing of public to tell Marxist mercenaries holding the NHS to ransom to get stuffed
Hypocritic oafs AT a stroke, the Marxist mercenaries holding the NHS to ransom have managed to unite the country – in condemnation of their greed. There is no possible justification for 'resident' doctors to vote for strikes this summer in pursuit of a fantasy 29 per cent pay rise. Yet, after Labour unwisely gave the junior doctors a 22 per cent increase last year, here we are again — with patients facing more waiting time chaos caused by walkouts. The BMA's nonsensical claim is that their pay should go back to the levels last seen in 2008. But, of course, the union is now led by an extreme Labour activist. Corbynista Dr Tom Dolphin is a disciple of hard-Left MPs John McDonnell and Dawn Butler. He is also leading a charge to reinstate puberty blockers on the NHS for troubled teenagers who think they might be trans. Could it be that far from merely wanting better pay for his members, Dolphin also wants to cause maximum damage to the Government, just as his predecessors tried to use strikes to destroy the Tories last year? Any increased pay deal would have to come from NHS money meant to be spent on patients. Drink up WE hate to be glass half empty. But the last orders bell is now loudly ringing out the death knell for our beloved pubs. 'One of my favourite pubs' cry locals as popular bar closes doors permanently after 40 years in business in 'end of era' At least one is now closing every single day. Landlords can no longer swallow a toxic mix of soaring energy costs and crippling business rates. April's National Insurance rise on employers proved to be one blow too many. It is a tragedy that our uncaring Government not only abandoned pubs in their hour of need but actively pursued policies that drove so many of them out of existence. Sick notes LABOUR has no hope of cutting the out-of-control welfare bill while it makes claiming benefits more lucrative than work. Why would anyone go out to earn a living when it turns out they can stay in bed and make £2,500 a year more on sickness benefits than the average worker stuck on the national living wage? When will we see support for the strivers – and the skivers hauled off the dole?
Times
09-07-2025
- Health
- Times
The pay perk striking doctors don't mention: gold-plated pensions
Salaries are only part of the story when it comes to the debate about resident doctors' pay packets. Missing from the British Medical Association's call for a 29 per cent pay rise is recognition of the fact that doctors, alongside nurses, teachers, civil servants and other public sector employees, are among the few who still have generous salary-linked pensions. Most of us save into defined contribution (DC) schemes, where the size of your pension pot at retirement depends on how much was paid in and how your investments performed. However, defined benefit (DB) schemes, which have largely disappeared outside the public sector, pay a guaranteed income in retirement, linked to your level of pay and increasing in line with inflation. Doctors are told they receive a 23.7 per cent pension contribution from the NHS but in reality the cost to the taxpayer of funding their retirement income can be higher. In years when the cost of paying out pensions is more than what is being contributed, the Treasury — and therefore the taxpayer — fills the gap.
South China Morning Post
08-07-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Junior doctors' vote to strike, threatening Britain's hospitals amid pay dispute
Junior doctors in England have voted in favour of taking strike action, their trade union said on Tuesday, threatening Britain's hospitals once again with disruption just as the government said it had started to improve services. Junior doctors, also known as resident doctors, voted for industrial action after they were offered an average 5.4 per cent pay rise by the government, far below the 29 per cent they say is necessary to address years of salary erosion in real terms. The fresh threat of strikes comes after the doctors accepted a 22 per cent pay rise last year covering 2023 to 2025, ending months of previous disruptive strikes. Junior doctors say that due to the long-term erosion of their pay and after several years of high inflation, they still need a 29 per cent rise this year to help restore it to levels last seen in 2008. 'Doctors have spoken and spoken clearly: they won't accept that they are worth a fifth less than they were in 2008,' said Melissa Ryan and Ross Nieuwoudt, the co-chairs of the British Medical Association's (BMA) resident doctors' committee. The mandate allowed industrial action to take place until January, but the BMA said there was 'still time to avert' it.
The Guardian
07-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
NHS bosses fear fresh strikes in England as resident doctors seek 29% pay rise
Hospitals are bracing for a fresh round of strikes by resident doctors seeking a 29% pay rise, amid warnings that stoppages could lead to hundreds of thousands of appointments and operations being cancelled. NHS leaders fear that a ballot of resident doctors, formerly junior doctors in England, which closes on Monday will produce a majority backing renewed industrial action. If so, the health service will face prolonged disruption from tens of thousands of resident doctors once again staging a series of strikes in an attempt to secure a 29% pay rise. Huge numbers of outpatient appointments and procedures were cancelled when junior doctors went on strike for a total of 44 days between March 2023 and July 2024. Soon after Labour took power last year, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, gave them a 22% pay rise for 2023-24 and 2024-25, which ended their stoppages. But they are threatening to stage six months of strikes, from this month into next winter and up to January 2026, after he awarded them a 5.4% pay rise for this year – the highest in the public sector. The British Medical Association, which is balloting the 55,000 resident doctors it represents, described that sum as 'derisory' and 'woefully inadequate'. It says they deserve a pay rise of 29% over the next few years in order to ensure that resident doctors receive 'full pay restoration' to make up for a 23% loss in the value of their salaries since 2008. The result of the ballot is expected on Tuesday. If the BMA members vote to strike again, that will make it hard for the government to cut the backlog for hospital treatment and restore the 18-week waiting-time target by 2029 – its main NHS pledge. Streeting is acutely concerned about the impact of a yes vote. He has asked resident doctors to shun strikes. 'We can't afford to return to a continuous cycle of standoffs, strikes and cancellations,' he wrote in the Times in May. Danny Mortimer, the chief executive of NHS Employers, which represents England's 215 health trusts in annual pay negotiations with NHS staff, said: 'The last thing health leaders want is more industrial action, which will likely lead to tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of appointments and operations being cancelled, leaving patients in pain and frustration. A decision to strike after the largest series of pay awards in the public sector would be a troubling development.' He added: 'While we fully understand the genuine grievances resident doctors have over their pay, conditions and training, going on strike will have a huge impact on the NHS and patients.' Rachel Power, the chief executive of the Patients Association, said she supported the right to strike but hoped to avoid stoppages. 'With the 10-year health plan promising to rebuild the NHS and restore public trust, we must ask how this can be achieved amid the risk of continued industrial action. The government and the BMA must find a solution urgently,' she added. Hospital bosses' apprehension about the outcome of the ballot was heightened recently when Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, the co-chair of the BMA's resident doctors committee, said members were 'excited' at the prospect of going on strike again. 'In general, and what we're hearing overall, the vast majority of people are excited to go again. Ultimately, doctors are still very upset and looking for change.' Nieuwoudt and his co-chair, Dr Melissa Ryan, have urged members to vote yes. 'By voting yes they will be telling the government there is no alternative to fixing pay. This cannot wait for different fiscal circumstances and a healthier NHS,' they have said. Daniel Elkeles, the chief executive of the hospital group NHS Providers, said strikes would result in trusts 'dealing with disruption rather than devoting all their time to improving patient care. 'With a government review into training for resident doctors under way, this will help us to get back to resident doctors feeling as valued as much as we value their contribution to the success of the NHS,' he added. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'We want to work constructively with all unions to avoid disrupting services for patients. The secretary of state has always been clear on his priority to avoid strike action and he met with the resident doctors committee on his very first day in government. 'We are on a journey to improve conditions for resident doctors, and they have received a pay rise of 28.9% over the last three years. Our 10-year health plan will also slash bureaucracy across the health service, reducing burdensome administrative tasks and making use of technology so doctors can spend time on what they do best – caring for patients.'
