UK: Tens of thousands of doctors kick off 3-day strike

By SYLVIA HUI
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Tens of thousands of junior doctors are on strike across England to demand better pay, kicking off three days of widespread disruption at the U.K.‘s state-funded hospitals and health clinics. Junior doctors are qualified but in the earlier years of their career. They make up 45% of all doctors in the National Health Service. Their walkout means that operations and appointments will be cancelled for thousands of patients, and senior doctors and other medics have had to be drafted in to cover for emergency services, critical care and maternity services. The British Medical Association, the doctors’ trade union, says pay for junior doctors has fallen 26% in real terms since 2008, while workload and patient waiting lists are at record highs.