NHS consultants in England are on 48-hour strike today and tomorrow, with the BMA hosting a rally at its London headquarters in Tavistock Square, WC1H 9JP, from 2pm-4pm.
BMA consultants committee chair Dr Vishal Sharma will address consultants, with other BMA representatives, as well as RMT general secretary Mick Lynch, whose members are also striking this week.
In addition to the London rally, there will be BMA picket lines at hospitals in Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Derby, Birmingham, Norwich, Oxford, Bristol and Brighton.
In London NHS Consultants will be picketing at University College London Hospital from 8am to 12.30pm and at King’s College Hospital (Denmark Hill), 7am to 8pm today as well as at St George’s Hospital in Tooting from 8am to 12.30pm tomorrow.
Ahead of today and tomorrow’s strike, BMA consultants committee chair Dr Vishal Sharma issued a statement saying: ‘The government has once again imposed a savage real terms pay cut on consultants.
‘When inflation is running at more than11%, this is nothing short of insulting.’ (see page 9).
There was a reversal of roles in Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons yesterday, with Tory PM Sunak demanding of Labour leader Starmer: ‘Does he agree with me that the consultants and junior doctors should accept the pay offer that they have been made?’
With Tory MPs baying with laughter, Sunak taunted Starmer after his response with: ‘Mr Speaker, I don’t think we heard an answer to the question.’
Sunak then claimed that the Tory NHS policies are ‘all starting to make a difference but all held up by one very simple fact – industrial action in the NHS.
‘Again, I’ll give him a second chance, if he really wants to get people the healthcare that they want will he agree with me that those doctors should accept the recommendations of the independent pay review body?’
Starmer replied: ‘Mr Speaker I think he’s forgotten how this works. He talks about his plan, his NHS staffing plan, he doesn’t need to lecture me on that, he’s nicked it from Labour.
‘It’s the same old story, they mess up the NHS and look to Labour to fix it. Come the election the country will be doing the same.
‘The difference is, unlike us, he hasn’t said how he’s paying for his workforce plan. Now’s his chance. Where’s the money coming from?’
Starmer’s role in the debate was to rail against the Tory party for not being tough enough against the trade unions.
His chorus of ‘where is the money coming from?’ is attacking the Tories from the right, implying that they are not tough enough to stand up to the trade unions, which he figures is the role that he is going to play in the period ahead.
The majority of trade unionists are not blind to Starmer’s rightward evolution. Many workers consider that the trade unions must stand up to both Sunak and Starmer by calling a general strike to bring the government down and go forward to a workers government.
