‘People are dying’: Britons fume over longest strike in NHS history amid surging winter pressures

The Government gave junior doctors an 8.8 per cent pay rise last summer and an extra three per cent was offered during the last round of negotiations but was rejected by the British Medical Association (BMA).

Despite almost one million operations and appointments being cancelled due to the strike action, which has cost the NHS around £2billion, the most recent polling by Ipsos found that 53 per cent of the public back the doctors.

Its Christmas poll also put NHS staff at the top of the “nice list”.

GB News spoke to people in Leeds, West Yorkshire, to get their reaction to the ongoing junior doctor strike action, and support was divided.

Former Health Secretary Steve Barclay has claimed the walk-outs are “politically motivated” and accused junior doctors’ leaders of “walking away” from the negotiating table, a claim denied by the BMA.

But the minister’s notion was shared by a Leeds local. He told us: “People are dying and this is ridiculous these strikes going on and on and on.

“It’s the unions basically, that are more left-wing unions and the doctors just go along with the unions. They [junior doctors] should take the pay offer they’ve been given and get back to work.”

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The ethics involved in the strike action were also questioned by one woman who told us: “I couldn’t do it [strike] because I’d be thinking about the patients, and that’s what they should be doing, regardless of pounds, shillings and pence.”

A pensioner out shopping on the high street also shared concerns over the industrial action. He said: “It’s been going on so long that it does disturb me a little, especially at my age, if I’ve got to go into hospital, is there going to be help for me there?”

NHS bosses have said the strike will have a big impact on routine services such as planned operations, and one woman in Leeds that we spoke to is one of the hundreds of thousands of patients to have had her appointment cancelled several times.

She told GB News: “It’s affecting me because I’m supposed to be going in [to hospital] and I’ve been delayed, and I’m getting delayed again, so I’m not right happy about it.

“Whilst I do have sympathy for them, we’re all in the same boat and everybody could strike and the world would stop, no, I’m not 100 per cent behind them.”

But others out and about in Leeds city centre disagreed and gave their backing to the junior doctors who so far have received two pay rises.

One in 2022-23 was worth two per cent, while another in the current 2023-24 year was worth 8.8 per cent on average, which brought the starting salary to more than £32,000, with those towards the end of their training currently receiving in excess of £63,000.

Touching on the pay issue, one man said that junior doctors deserve more and told us: “Earning £15 an hour for the job you are doing, you’re risking your life, you’re saving people’s lives, you should be expecting something better.”

Another man thought that the conditions junior doctors work under should also be considered and said: “Junior doctors are the ones who carry the vast amount of hospital work and are treated poorly [with] the hours they have to work and the conditions and pay.”

This was echoed by a member of university staff who had previously gone on strike as part of an action organised by the University and College Union.

He told GB News: “We really need to see workers respected and treated with the dignity they deserve, and especially those in sectors like healthcare, where they’re literally saving lives on a daily, hourly basis.”

The BMA say that junior doctors have been forced onto the picket lines as strike action is the “only thing” the government listens to, and with 6.4 million patients on the waiting list for treatment, the union says staff are suffering burnout and leaving the country or the profession altogether.

As well as wanting pay restoration to 2008 levels, the BMA is asking for a new pay mechanism to prevent any future pay decreases against inflation and the cost of living.

The union also wants a reformed Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body for independent and fair pay recommendations for staff to safeguard recruitment and retention of junior doctors.

On the junior doctor picket line outside Leeds General Infirmary, Dr Vassili Crispi told GB News that the strike action is not just about pay but also to “save the NHS” from conditions that put patient care at risk.

“Patients deserve junior doctors who are well paid, who are well rested, who are well resourced, and the UK is not providing this at the moment,” he said.

“15 years of pay cuts have put our profession on its knees. We graduate with tens of hundreds of pounds of debt and on top of which we pay thousands of pounds on a yearly basis for exams and courses.

“It’s putting a strain on our colleagues who are simply leaving our profession.”

NHS England's national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said the strikes will not only affect the health service this week - but also for “weeks after as we recover services and deal with additional demand”.

He described them as having a “significant impact on almost all routine care”, with almost half of the medical workforce on picket lines.

But despite the impact on patient care, junior doctors at Leeds General Infirmary feel that they still have public support.

Chris Morris, Deputy Chair for BMA Regional Junior Doctors Committee, told GB News: “Opinion polls throughout our strike action have shown that public support has been increasing throughout the strike action, so I think the public is feeling the pressure that the NHS is under, and I think they can empathise with the issues that doctors are facing.

“Through our strike action, we have pushed the Government to re-enter negotiations, to give us another offer, so it is working step by step and we think it will continue to work.”

Keep Our NHS Public has supported junior doctors on the picket lines since strikes began in March last year.

The organisation support campaigns to reverse the privatisation and commercialisation of social care and calls for health and social care services to be publicly funded and publicly provided.

John Puntis is the Co-Chair of Keep Our NHS Public and told GB News: “I was a consultant in Leeds for nearly 30 years and I believed in providing the best possible care for my patients and I think with the state of play with the NHS at the moment, they’re simply not getting the care that they should do.”

The 144-hour strike is set to be the most disruptive in the NHS’ 75 years and lasts until 7am on Tuesday.

People are advised by the NHS to access the care they need in the usual way by only using 999 and A&E in life-threatening emergencies and using NHS 111 online and other services for non-urgent health needs.