UK Doctors Go on Strike, Treatments Postponed
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The first British doctors’ strike in more than 40 years got under way Tuesday morning, with physicians walking out in a dispute with the government over pay and conditions.
Almost 30,000 junior doctors were expected to join a strike that began at 8 am London time and was set to last for 24 hours — the first of three planned actions in the coming weeks. More senior doctors known as consultants, other health care workers and even military doctors are expected to fill the void.
More than 4,000 routine operations and procedures were cancelled as a result of the strike, Politico reported on Tuesday.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday urged the doctors to abandon what he said was a “damaging” strike. But no last-minute deal was struck.
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS medical director, has written to hospitals urging them to call junior doctors back in to work if patients are at risk.
The action is the first for the nation’s doctors since November 1975. It comes years into a cost-cutting campaign under Cameron that has met increasing resistance from health care workers. Only doctors in England are taking action. Their colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all taken a different stance over the contract negotiations.
A second strike is scheduled for 48 hours from 8 am on January 26, and a third will be a full walk-out from services, including emergency care, on February 10.
