Specialist doctors in England are starting the first leg of their biggest strike action so far today, with hospitals warning it could cause problems for emergency departments at one of the toughest times of the year.

The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents around 50,000 specialist doctors, said its members are starting a three-day strike today, and will also walk off duty from January 3 to 9 to demand pay rises.

The new strike, following a series of previous strikes in recent months, comes as Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) struggles to cope with long waiting listsin which patients must wait to receive treatment.

“After five weeks of intense negotiations, the government has not appeared able to make a credible offer on wages,” the BMA explained in early December.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has offered specialist doctors a 3% increase on top of the 8.8% they were given in the summer. However the BMA is calling for a 35% rise which it says is necessary to cover the effects of inflation on doctors’ purchasing power.

“Huge problems”

This new strike is “very disappointing”, assessed Sunak yesterday, Tuesday, speaking in parliament, while underlining that specialist doctors are now “the only” civil servants with whom there has been no agreement on salaries.

For Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director for England, “these strikes come at a time that will cause huge problems for the NHS, whose services are already feeling the winter pressure”.

“The worst fear of those in charge (of hospitals) is coming true” with this strike, commented Julian Hartley, president of NHS Providers, the organization to which NHS hospitals in England belong.

One day before the start of the strike Health Minister Victoria Atkins wanted to reassure the public that “significant emergency measures” had been taken to limit the problems, while adding that the door “remains open” for negotiations in order to suspend the mobilizations.

Strikes by NHS staff have caused 1.2m operations and doctor appointments to be canceled this year, hampering the Sunak government’s efforts to reduce waiting lists.

GPs recently received an increase from 6% to 19.6%, which has not yet been ratified by the BMA.

Since mid-2022, many strikes have taken place in Britain in various industries due to the economic crisis in the country. Inflation, which had long remained above 10%, fell in October to 4.6%.