UK In Trouble: Doctors Go On Biggest-Ever Strike | Vantage with Palki Sharma

to the United Kingdom, now Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is from Northern Ireland, will receive US President Biden in Belfast. It is a very short visit, not even a full day. Northern Ireland is a conflict region that saw 30 years of violence and then a peace agreement was signed about 25 years ago. It's called the Good Friday Agreement. Biden has come to mark the anniversary of this deal and hail his, quote, tremendous progress, but Northern Ireland remains in conflict, Brexit is unraveling the delicate peace, and Rishi Sunak has his plate full when he returns to London. We will have to deal with another crisis.

The rising cost of living is pushing people over the edge. They say costs are high and salaries low. Doctors say they are among the worst affected and have now gone on

strike

which is expected to lead to. unprecedented disruption, it has a report of 350,000, that is the number of appointments and operations that are expected to be postponed in the UK, that is, more than a quarter of a million patients have that treatment postponed to a later date and This is happening because young

doctors

across Britain are on The

strike

began on Tuesday and will continue until Saturday.

Tens of thousands of

doctors

are on strike just to give you an idea of ​​how important this is. Young doctors make up around half of the medical workforce in the UK and they don't come to work. the demand is quite simple they want a 35 pay increase 26 less is too much to ask but these doctors argue that they have suffered a 26 pay cut in the last 15 years the british government has described their demand as unrealistic says such a high salary could mean that some young doctors to receive more than £20,000 in extra pay and Britain cannot afford it, so we are willing to have talks with them, but clearly a demand of 35 more than £20,000 for some young doctors is neither fair nor reasonable and it is That is why we have not been able to move forward until now, but we want to participate constructively.

That was the British Health Secretary. He remembers that the strike coincides with the school holidays of Easter, Ramazan and the Jewish festival of Passover. Furthermore, this is the largest industrial strike in the history of the British National Health Service according to the health secretary. The strike represents a considerable risk to patient safety but it did not stop there, it went on to accuse doctors of maintaining a military posture. in the negotiations, doctors obviously have a different view on the matter according to the British Medical Association Young doctors earned just over £14 an hour, but the pressure on them only increases patient waiting lists and the burden of Work is at record levels, coupled with the cost of living crisis and double-digit inflation and doctors are unable to make ends meet, many of them victims of depression and mental anguish.

I mean, I'm only four years post-graduation, but there have already been suicides in my class. I have friends who quit medicine because it broke them. If I had to get counseling for PTSD symptoms after what was covered, because it was just a horror and we are still expected to carry on as if nothing happened and conditions are deteriorating and we are just getting to the point we are at.

ever

yone at Breaking Point, not only financially but mentally and physically, we just can't go on like this, our doctors are leaving for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, other industries where they feel they can provide better care and can double their salary.

In asking for that, all we are asking for is a return to net neutrality, right back to 2008 levels, where the service worked most efficiently when the waiting list was a third of what it was today and when doctors were It paid a slightly more appropriate salary. Well, now strikes in the UK have become a regular occurrence over the last few months. Industrial strikes and picketing have affected almost

ever

y sector of the British economy. Nurses, teachers, university staff, train and bus drivers, civil servants, security guards have all participated in strikes. Their demands are basically the same, better wages, hey, inflation is slowing down, albeit at a snail's pace, so workers need immediate pay increases to adapt to the new reality of life in the UK, where they need more money to survive, but the UK economy is contracting.

In fact, it will be the worst performing G7 economy this year, so London does not have the fiscal space to increase wages, and yet workers remain adamant that it will be interesting to see how the Prime Minister navigates through this crisis.