Damaging demands

Just as it appeared many of the public sector pay disputes were close to being settled, possibly the most damaging strike of all is about to take place. Junior doctors in England are stopping work for three days, plunging hospitals into chaos and causing the cancellation of thousands of scheduled appointments and operations.

The NHS has already been hit by a series of strikes by nurses and ambulance drivers, whose unions have put their action on hold while negotiations take place with employers and the Government. The junior doctors were offered the same arrangement by Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, but turned it down in pursuit of a 35 per cent pay demand. People may sympathise with the medics, who have seen their real incomes fall in recent years, but they are not alone in that.

Many whose treatments will be postponed are in the same predicament and are often paid far less than doctors. The pay rise sought by the British Medical Association (BMA) is ludicrously high at a time when most are having to accept less than the inflation rate. Staff in the NHS know there was a pandemic, which has caused a record backlog of patients waiting for treatment. They are also aware that the “save the NHS” messaging discouraged some people from seeking help for ailments, which have now become worse as a result of the delays. The three-day stoppage is the longest period of sustained industrial action called in the NHS.

In rejecting Mr Barclay’s offer of talks at the weekend, the BMA accused him of a “feeble effort … to kick the can down the road”. Are junior doctors happy with a union that deploys the sort of tactics and rhetoric we thought had been left behind in the 1970s?