NHS warns of strike in hot weather – World

Britain’s National Health Service has warned that patients should expect significant disruption as the latest junior doctors’ strike comes during the hottest week of the year so far.

The British Medical Association (BMA) will begin a five-day strike on Thursday, the eleventh in a wage dispute that began early last year.

Yellow heat warnings have been issued in many regions across the country. With strikes taking place at the same time, NHS England warned that services would be overwhelmed and advised people to use them with caution.

The British health authority’s yellow warning means that the high temperatures can endanger particularly vulnerable people.

The NHS said it expected significant disruption to planned hospital treatments such as operations and doctor’s appointments, leading to many cancellations.

NHS Medical Director Stephen Powis said: “This new wave of strikes will once again hit the NHS very hard. Almost all routine care is likely to be affected and services will come under significant pressure.”

He added that the persistent hot weather was likely to increase the strain on health services.

The BMA is demanding a 35 per cent pay rise to compensate for what it says have been 15 years of below-inflation pay, a demand the government considers unreasonable.

Junior doctors, who make up almost half of the medical workforce, saw an average pay rise of almost nine percent in the last financial year, the BBC reported. The BMA broke off negotiations last year when an additional three percent pay rise was being discussed.

In a statement released last month after the government announced a general election would be held on July 4, the co-chairs of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee, Robert Laurenson and Vivek Trivedi, said: “We made it clear to the government that we would strike if talks did not end with a credible pay offer. For more than 18 months we have been calling on Rishi Sunak to put forward proposals to restore junior doctors’ salaries, which they have lost over the past 15 years – more than a quarter in real terms.

“When we entered into mediation with the government, we assumed that we had a functioning government that would soon make an offer. Now there is obviously no offer. The junior doctors have had enough and their patience has run out.”