MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2022) The situation in the UK health service is getting worse due to the lack of funding and a doctors' strike is likely to take place next spring, the council chair of British Medical Association's (BMA), Prof. Philip Banfield, said on Friday.
Banfield told the Guardian that UK doctors were frustrated that the government was neglecting the NHS, the UK's national healthcare system. Doctors seek a 30% salary increase over the next five year, which would restore their salaries to the level before the 2008 crisis, however this proposal has been scrutinized and criticized by politicians.
"Doctors are angry, frustrated and feeling undervalued. There is very, very serious discontent (about pay). After 14 years are doctors worth 30% less? No. I mean, if anything they are worth 30% more," Banfield was quoted as saying by the news outlet.
�Junior doctors, who are most likely to stage industrial action, want the salary boost right now and not phased over five years, Banfield said. Medics will explore all possible means of pressuring politicians before staging walkouts to ensure that the NHS functions normally for as long as possible, however this cannot last forever, the BMA chair noted.
BMA's chair stated that doctors' strikes were essentially inevitable and likely to take place next spring.
In the coming days the ministers are expected to announce a pay award for all UK NHS staff after health unions have demanded that doctors receive at least a pay rise that matches the inflation, which is currently standing at 9.1%, according to the report.
According to the newspaper, the UK government is currently consulting�independent pay review bodies to explore a fair pay deal for all health workers.
