On May 29, the BMA reported that junior doctors in England have announced new strike dates during the General Election period over their pay [1]. This will involve a full walkout by junior doctors in two weeks time beginning at 7am on Thursday, June 27, and ending 7am on Tuesday, July 2. Following three months of talks between junior doctors in England and the government, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had still made no credible offer to junior doctors to meet their demands for a roadmap to restore pay lost over the last 15 years.

Junior doctors in Leeds

BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: "We made clear to the Government that we would strike unless discussions ended in a credible pay offer. For more than 18 months we have been asking Rishi Sunak to put forward proposals to restore the pay junior doctors have lost over the past 15 years - equal to more than a quarter [of their income] in real terms.

"When we entered mediation with Government this month we did so under the impression that we had a functioning government that would soon be making an offer. Clearly no offer is now forthcoming. Junior doctors are fed up and out of patience."

The fact that the junior doctors in England are facing a government which is clearly not functioning and are having to take their strike struggle into the general election reflects the deep crisis of the Westminster government and its inability to find solutions to the catastrophic problems in the NHS. It does indeed reflect a government in shameful disarray with no way forward.

Whipps Cross Hospital, Waltham Forrest

What is also clear in the election campaign is that neither of the big cartel parties have a solution to the crisis in the NHS. In the ITV leaders' "debate" [2] Sunak and Starmer were asked how they intended to resolve the fact "that the NHS is broken". Rishi Sunak framed his answer around blaming Covid-19 and the doctors' strike for the massive increase in waiting lists. Trying to pass the blame onto the doctors he said that "the union are demanding a 35% pay rise and I don't want to raise your taxes to pay for that". The Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer framed his answer around claiming that Labour would reduce waiting lists faster than the present government and that they would "get in the room" and "resolve" the junior doctors' strike. But he did not disagree with Sunak in declaring that "we wouldn't pay the 35%". Not only were both of the big cartel parties blaming the doctors for the problems that successive governments have caused in the NHS long before Covid-19 but they both tried to mislead the audience about the aims of the junior doctors and blamed them for the crisis of waiting lists in the NHS.

The facts are the opposite. The doctors' demands are for the government to agree a deal to restore the income that they have lost through successive Labour and Conservative governments. The junior doctors are addressing this massive pay cut as the workload and waiting lists that doctors face are at record highs, and junior doctors' pay has been cut by more than a quarter since 2008. A crippling cost-of-living crisis, burnout and well-below inflation pay rises risk driving hard working doctors out of their profession at a time when the NHS needs them more than ever.

What the junior doctors have taken up is part of the whole working class actions over recent times that "Enough is Enough!". That the junior doctors are speaking out and smashing the silence on their working conditions is a step towards solving the crisis in the NHS, making sure that doctors are there to tackle the waiting lists and do the operations and provide the patient care that people need. This is something that the big cartel parties have proved that they are unable to do, or refused to solve, with their pre-occupations of paying the rich at the expense of public services which is only increasing this crisis further.

The claim that Labour and Conservatives have done the "costing", and cannot afford to meet the just demands of the junior doctors, or invest to resolve the crisis in the health service, is spurious. It is not a matter of balancing income and expenditure by the state. Working people, including doctors and all health workers, create enormous new value, including a healthy workforce, while the rich refuse not only to pay their share for this workforce, but operate in a society where they parasitise off public funds. It must be recognised that investing in the NHS is a precondition for resolving the crisis and effecting a change in the direction of the economy, which favours working people as a whole.

In fact the big cartel party system has forced the issue of who decides on health care as on everything else. The struggle of the junior doctors', who are refusing to be ignored in this election, reveals that the solutions to the problems in the NHS lie with the health workers themselves whose interest lies in building a modern health service which improves the conditions of patient care. The need is for everyone, including alternative candidates, to take up the fight for pay restoration for junior doctors into the general election and aim for a new situation where decision-making involves doctors, nurses and all health workers, along with communities and people as a whole, speaking and acting in their own name.

Notes
1. Junior doctors announce new strike dates in England ahead of General Election
https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/junior-doctors-announce-new-strike-dates-in-england-ahead-of-general-election
2. Live: Watch the ITV Leaders' Debate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heP8-evLKvA

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