Doctors in England begin five-day strike over pay

The Star

Resident doctors in England began a five-day strike on Friday (July 25) over pay, challenging Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party government that promised to end industrial unrest when taking office a year ago.   WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00When do we want it? Now!

00:02Resident doctors in England on Friday began a five-day strike over their pay,

00:07testing Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government,

00:10which has pledged to end industrial unrest when taking office last year.

00:15I think for anyone who's looking at the strikes and isn't sure how to feel,

00:18I'd say that what we're fighting for is part of a general fight,

00:21whether it's the bin workers in Birmingham and Sheffield,

00:23or strikers and the nurses still have unfair pay as well,

00:27that it's all part of a greater attack on the living conditions of workers across the country.

00:32So yeah, I guess in a sense our struggle is your struggle as well.

00:35Well, what I say to the public is that no doctor wants to be on strike.

00:39I've dedicated my life to looking after patients.

00:41I work as a child psychiatrist, a resident doctor in child psychiatry,

00:45and I've seen so many seriously unwell kids,

00:48kids who are suicidal, kids who are self-harming, kids who are locked in their rooms,

00:53and they haven't seen a specialist for over a year,

00:55and that's simply because we don't have the doctors.

00:59Doctors are tired, doctors are burnt out, and doctors are leaving.

01:03The doctors picketed outside the St. Thomas' Hospital in central London,

01:07with the British Medical Association saying that the 5.4 percent pay rise for resident doctors

01:13has failed to reverse years of wage erosion.

01:16Resident doctors made up of nearly half of National Health Service's medical staff.

01:21What we're asking for is to restore our pay back to 2008 levels.

01:25We're not asking for a single penny more.

01:27And what that would look like is a doctor that's currently paid around £18 an hour.

01:32We're asking for that doctor to be paid just over £22 an hour.

01:36£22 an hour to deliver life-saving treatment,

01:39£22 an hour to restart people's hearts,

01:41£22 an hour to look after hundreds of patients overnight.

01:45Last year the Labour Party government settled a dispute with doctors

01:49by granting a 22% raise after coming to power.

01:53But this year the doctors said they need a higher pay rise.

01:56Health Minister Wes Streeting called the strike reckless and needless.

02:00you

02:01needless.

02:10you

02:13you

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