English doctors' strike could be catastrophic, official says
Britain is bracing for a four-day walkout by tens of thousands of doctors at the state-funded health care system
LONDON (AP) — Britain is bracing for a four-day walkout by tens of thousands of doctors at the state-funded health care system that one official warned Monday could be “catastrophic” and postpone up to 350,000 appointments.
The strike due to start Tuesday by National Health Service doctors early in their careers comes amid walkouts by public workers across many sectors demanding pay hikes during a cost-of-living crisis. A three-day doctors' strike last month crippled the system that has been trying to dig out of an appointment backlog that predates the pandemic and has led to longer waiting times to see a doctor.
“These strikes are going to have a catastrophic impact on the capacity of the NHS to recover," Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, told Sky News. “The health service has to meet high levels of demand at the same time as making inroads into that huge backlog. ... That’s a tough thing to do at the best of times — it’s impossible to do when strikes are continuing.”
With inflation ballooning above 10% and spikes in food and heating costs, wages have fallen in real terms and people have struggled to pay bills.
