full screen Doctors demonstrate outside the Royal Victoria Infirmary in the English city of Newcastle. Photo: Owen Humphreys/AP/TT
Doctors in England will start the longest strike in the history of the British National Health Service (NHS) on Wednesday.
The doctors, who belong to what can be compared to Swedish AT doctors, make up roughly half of the workforce. The strike will last six days and is seen as a huge escalation in the long-running conflict with the UK government.
The strike will have a “significant impact on almost all routine care”, according to the NHS.
– January could be one of the most difficult starts to a year ever for the NHS, says Stephen Powis, chief executive of care in England.
The doctors demand, among other things, salary increases of 35 percent as compensation for years of salary increases that were below inflation.