Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on doctors in the UK beginning their strike

Resident doctors in England have begun their strike action after rejecting the Government's latest pay offer.

The British Medical Association (BMA), and the health secretary, Wes Streeting, met in a final bid to reach an agreement, but none was reached.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Doctors in the UK going on a five day strike
that we thought that, No, the twenty four hour strike
or even the two seven hour strike that we had
in New Zealand's bed not although Gevin Gray is our
UK Correspondentvin, which doctors in particular are going on strike
or is it all of them?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Note these are what are called resident doctors that used
to be called junior doctors, Ryan, but they represent about
sixty percent of all the doctors that you see in
a hospital, not the consultants or the surgeons here, but
the doctors, you know, the straightforward one. So a large
proportion of the doctors are going out on strike.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
It's a long running dispute over yes, you guessed it. Pay.
The government's pointing out that they've.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Actually given the doctor's resident doctors a thirty three zero
percent increase in salary over the last couple of years.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
But the junior doctors are not happy.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
They say, no, that's still not enough, and also there
are some other things they want over, basically career progression training,
et cetera, et cetera. Now, the government held an emergency
meeting a couple of days at the end of last week,
effectively trying to stop this strike, and the junior doctors

(01:15):
held another voter and effectively decided to go ahead. It
was a real snub to the government's attempts, with more
than eighty percent voting for this strike. The reason it's
particularly in the headlines at the moment, Ryan is because
we have got a real wave of bad flu strains
going around and that has meant that many beds are

(01:36):
now occupied in hospital by flu patients. So people are
beginning to think that actually, this five day strike may
well knock out non emergency services for a while, and
that's going to push up waiting lists and do a
lot of dent to the government's plans to get those
waiting lists down.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, we have a similar thing going on here because
during COVID, I'm sure you did the same thing, the
waving lists blow out, Government comes up, tries to fix it,
people go on strike and then it makes it very difficult. Now,
the climate, We've spoken about this a couple of times,
but the climate, the sort of rolling back of the
climate initiatives, the European Commissions watering down its petrol diesel

(02:14):
vehicle ben.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yes, so the.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
EU said that they were going to have zero emission
new cars sold from twenty thirty five. In other words,
every single car being sold off the fore court that
was new was going to have to be electric or
some kind of other zero emission vehicle. Well they've watered
that down now to ninety percent, so it's still pretty tight,

(02:39):
but I think it's a sign of perhaps what's more
to come. Car makers, particularly those in Germany, have lobbied
very heavily for concessions. They are pleased it's come down,
but I think some of them are really thinking, actually,
this needs to come down even more, and they are
just saying quite simply that we are just not going

(02:59):
to get there because the interest and the sales in
electric cars has not been strong. And also the change
to production lines whilst it's been happening to go from
internal combustion through until electric, well those changes have started
to be made, but we think twenty thirty five is
way too ambitious to ban new petrol and diesel vehicles.

(03:21):
So in a sense, Germany, well, of course, one of
the big big players in the EU, has got its
way here, and it's not the only group that's pleased
with this. It would appear as well, this is the
way the UK is going as well, with the UK
previously being hammered for the requirement for having better incentives

(03:43):
to encourage drivers to buy electric Those incentives are there,
but they're not very significant, and again electric car interest
and electric car sales not great. Opponents of what's happening
in the EU say they really risk undermining the transition
towards electric vehicles and leaving the EU exposed in the
face of foreign competition.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
And finally, given doesn't matter what kind of care you're driving.
If you're going to first you get a speeding fine,
but some drivers that might get an early Christmas prison.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, this is an almighty cock up here by various
authorities because it's been discovered that these roadside cameras, the
fixed cameras that we see above gantries across major roads
are on the side of the road, have been actually
giving the wrongful speed and activated when people were driving

(04:31):
to the limit and not speeding. So in total, two thousand,
six hundred and fifty wrongful speed camera activations, as they
call it, in other words, wrongful prosecutions have happened since
twenty twenty one, and that's due to a delay between
the cameras and the variable speed signs. Now, the effected
drivers are being contacted by a police and will be

(04:53):
reimbursed for any fines.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Points that they had removed from their license will be replaced.
But the problem here, Ryan is some people might have lost.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Their licenses altogether because of numerous driving offenses, and of
course if you lose your license, for some people, it's
also the loss of their job. So it's a very
real issue that among these twenty six hundred and fifty
wrongful convictions or wrongful prosecutions, there might be some people
who have actually had their lives completely upended by excuse me,

(05:25):
a fake camera.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Reading, Gevin, Thank you for that update. Devin Gray are
UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
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