UK
Majority back NHS strikes despite disruption, polls show
Rachel Hall
Sun, 2 July 2023
Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer
Most Britons support healthcare workers in their wave of strikes over pay and conditions this year despite the worsening disruption, polling shows.
About two-thirds of the public said they supported striking nurses, ambulance workers and junior doctors, despite growing numbers of appointments and operations having to be cancelled, according to Ipsos polling carried out between January and June.
The figures have roughly held steady since the beginning of the year, though they dipped slightly in early spring when doctors, ambulance workers and nurses all held strikes.
Ipsos’s director of politics, Keiran Pedley, said the polling showed that “NHS staff are consistently the most supported by the public” out of all the striking workers.
He said: “Levels of support have been sustained over time despite any disruption caused. Support for NHS workers likely reflects strong public concern about the current state of the NHS and an inclination to blame the government, rather than the NHS or its staff, for problems that exist.”
Support for junior doctors has grown from 47% in January to 56% in June, while the figure for nurses has increased from 61% to 62% and support for ambulance workers has grown from 58% to 62%. In June, just 24% of the more than 1,000 respondents said they opposed the junior doctors’ strike, and 21% for ambulance workers and nurses.
Healthcare workers are striking in an effort to reverse the deep cuts to their salaries that have resulted from a decade of pay rises that have not kept up with inflation. Doctors, nurses and some other healthcare professionals have voted against the government’s offer of 5% plus a non-consolidated payment.
Junior doctors, who can have up to eight years of experience as a hospital doctor or three years in general practice, voted this month to strike from 7am on 13 July until 7am on 18 July, the longest such strike in NHS history. It is expected to result in thousands of appointments being rescheduled or cancelled.
On Tuesday it was announced that senior doctors had voted to join them for the first time in this pay dispute, with their first two-day strike in more than 50 years scheduled from 20 July. On the same day, it emerged that nursing union members had failed to vote in sufficient numbers for further strike action.
Related: End to nurses’ strike leaves tensions between Pat Cullen and RCN members
There are no available figures yet on public support for senior doctors. Ipsos polling from February found that 21% of people thought consultants were overpaid, a figure that rose to 47% when respondents were informed that senior doctors receive average salaries of £128,000.
Ipsos polling also showed that nearly half (48%) of the public said they supported teachers in their strikes in June, up from 41% in June 2022.
However, they were less supportive of some other professions. In June, just over a third (36%) supported airline workers, railway workers and border force staff taking action, while 35% supported university lecturers, 34% civil servants and 28% driving instructors.
The proportion of the public opposed to rail strikes has fallen since reaching a high of 45% in March, when RMT members went on strike after rejecting a pay deal, and now stands at 37%. Opposition to civil service workers’ strikes has fallen from 41% in June 2022 to 35% this month.
Majority back NHS strikes despite disruption, polls show
Rachel Hall
Sun, 2 July 2023
Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer
Most Britons support healthcare workers in their wave of strikes over pay and conditions this year despite the worsening disruption, polling shows.
About two-thirds of the public said they supported striking nurses, ambulance workers and junior doctors, despite growing numbers of appointments and operations having to be cancelled, according to Ipsos polling carried out between January and June.
The figures have roughly held steady since the beginning of the year, though they dipped slightly in early spring when doctors, ambulance workers and nurses all held strikes.
Ipsos’s director of politics, Keiran Pedley, said the polling showed that “NHS staff are consistently the most supported by the public” out of all the striking workers.
He said: “Levels of support have been sustained over time despite any disruption caused. Support for NHS workers likely reflects strong public concern about the current state of the NHS and an inclination to blame the government, rather than the NHS or its staff, for problems that exist.”
Support for junior doctors has grown from 47% in January to 56% in June, while the figure for nurses has increased from 61% to 62% and support for ambulance workers has grown from 58% to 62%. In June, just 24% of the more than 1,000 respondents said they opposed the junior doctors’ strike, and 21% for ambulance workers and nurses.
Healthcare workers are striking in an effort to reverse the deep cuts to their salaries that have resulted from a decade of pay rises that have not kept up with inflation. Doctors, nurses and some other healthcare professionals have voted against the government’s offer of 5% plus a non-consolidated payment.
Junior doctors, who can have up to eight years of experience as a hospital doctor or three years in general practice, voted this month to strike from 7am on 13 July until 7am on 18 July, the longest such strike in NHS history. It is expected to result in thousands of appointments being rescheduled or cancelled.
On Tuesday it was announced that senior doctors had voted to join them for the first time in this pay dispute, with their first two-day strike in more than 50 years scheduled from 20 July. On the same day, it emerged that nursing union members had failed to vote in sufficient numbers for further strike action.
Related: End to nurses’ strike leaves tensions between Pat Cullen and RCN members
There are no available figures yet on public support for senior doctors. Ipsos polling from February found that 21% of people thought consultants were overpaid, a figure that rose to 47% when respondents were informed that senior doctors receive average salaries of £128,000.
Ipsos polling also showed that nearly half (48%) of the public said they supported teachers in their strikes in June, up from 41% in June 2022.
However, they were less supportive of some other professions. In June, just over a third (36%) supported airline workers, railway workers and border force staff taking action, while 35% supported university lecturers, 34% civil servants and 28% driving instructors.
The proportion of the public opposed to rail strikes has fallen since reaching a high of 45% in March, when RMT members went on strike after rejecting a pay deal, and now stands at 37%. Opposition to civil service workers’ strikes has fallen from 41% in June 2022 to 35% this month.
Junior doctors to walk out for five days in July
Ella Pickover, PA Health Correspondent
Mon, 3 July 2023
Almost 650,000 appointments and operations have been postponed due to the wave of strikes which have hit the NHS in England in the run up to its 75th anniversary.
The unprecedented strikes have caused widespread disruption across the NHS since December 2022.
The first mass walkout of nurses in history took place in mid December – with ambulance workers, physiotherapists and other health workers following suit in subsequent weeks.
In March this year, junior doctors began the first in a wave of strikes, heaping further disruption on the health service.
Some 648,000 appointments, procedures and operations have been postponed as a result of the strikes in England since December (Jordan Pettitt/PA)
Some 648,000 appointments, procedures and operations have been postponed as a result of the strikes in England.
And as the NHS braces itself for the largest doctors’ strike in its history, just days after its 75th anniversary, further cancellations are inevitable.
Later this month, junior doctors are planning to stage the largest walkout in the history of the NHS – a five-day strike from July 13-18.
And consultants – the most senior doctors in the NHS – are planning to stage industrial action on July 20-21, where they will only provide scaled-back “Christmas day cover”.
The British Medical Association has urged the Government to enter talks using the conciliation service Acas, saying that a precondition to not get round the table when strikes are planned is a “completely artificial red line”.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay insisted that his door is still open for negotiations, but said that there needs to be “movement on both sides”.
Some unions have settled the matter with ministers after the NHS Staff Council voted to accept the Government’s revised pay offer for staff of the Agenda for Change contract – including paramedics, nurses and physiotherapists.
This means that staff on the contract – which includes more than a million NHS workers – saw a bump in their pay packet at the end of June.
The new offer represented a 5% pay rise this year and a cash sum for last year for the majority of staff on the contract – which includes all NHS workers apart from doctors, dentists and very senior managers.
But the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Unite rejected the offer, though a ballot of RCN recently revealed that nurses did not wish to continue with strikes.
The Society of Radiographers has reached the mandate to strike and said that it is likely walkouts will take place later this month at 43 trusts around England.
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