Thousands of UK hospital doctors walk out in latest pay dispute, crippling health services

By SYLVIA HUI
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of senior doctors in England are staging a 48-hour walkout to demand better pay and conditions. The strike that began on Thursday is paralyzing hospitals and leaving only emergency care covered. The severe disruptions are the latest in months of industrial action by public sector workers amid U.K.‘s ongoing cost-of-living crisis. They come just two days after junior doctors staged the longest strikes in the history of the state-funded National Health Service. Thousands of operations and appointments have been canceled until Saturday. Britain’s Conservative government has offered a 6% pay rise to the doctors but the British Medical Association called this “derisory.”