UK Government Taking Measures to Stabilize Situation in Domestic Healthcare and EMS Sectors After Serious Strikes

The UK government is taking measures to stabilize the situation in the domestic healthcare and EMS sectors after a series of strikes and walkouts of paramedics and other medical personnel, who were unhappy with working conditions and low salaries.  

In the first two months of the current year, the UK faced with probably the worst crisis of its healthcare and EMS sectors in several years aggravated by the seasonal flu pandemic.  

This winter the UK faced wing stretches of patients in ambulances outside overflowing British hospitals. While in recent months the situation has generally stabilized, it remains still complex, sparking serious criticism from the UK public and paramedics themselves.

Salary Increases Needed for Healthcare Workers

Perhaps the biggest concerns are related to the low salaries of healthcare workers in Great Britain, which has particular importance amid the conditions of record almost 11% inflation in the country (the biggest since 1980).  

The government is ready to increase salaries by only 4% (believing that it will only lead to the further growth of inflation) and only beginning in 2024, which has sparked massive protests in the country since the beginning of the current year.  

At the end of February, more than 11,000 UK ambulance workers went on strike, demanding an increase in wages, while on March 1, nurses of the Royal College of Nursing, which is the world's largest trade union uniting paramedical personnel went on the same two-day strike. In November 2022, they already participated in the largest protests in the UK in 70 years, when the government refused to meet a demand for a 19% raise in salaries for nurses, calling it "impossible".  

Finally, a series of strikes ended with the walkout of junior doctors in the middle of March. According to their representatives from the UK Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, over the past ten years, their salaries have been consistently cut and now they are 26% lower in real terms than they were in the past. According to the Association,  in recent years stress load on junior paramedics in the UK has significantly increased due to the shortage of doctors and medical personnel in the country.

Conflict at the Highest State Level

Representatives of paramedics from various trade unions explain that the UK government has “not had any dialogue with workers for over a month and refuses to talk about wages. Now the salary of an ambulance doctor is up to GBP 39,400 (US$49,000), while Nurses of various specializations and levels, including those employed in the EMS sector earn from £27,000 to £55,000 in the UK per year. These figures are considered as low amid the current economic situation in Great Britain.

The current crisis in the UK healthcare and EMS sectors has attracted attention at the highest state level. At the same time, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has recently promised the current problems will be solved by hiring more nurses, doctors, and paramedics. Also, the number of beds in emergency departments of the country will be increased.  Also, Sunak said cutting hospital waiting times will be one of his major priorities as a head of the government.   

Earlier, UK Health Minister Steve Barclay in an interview with the BBC said that the chronically underfunded healthcare and EMS sectors are under significant pressure, while one of the biggest criticisms is related to the long wait to transfer patients from ambulances to emergency rooms. 

Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, has estimated that between 300 and 500 people die each week due to emergency care delays, which means that this problem remains extremely important for the country. There is an acute lack of beds in the accident and emergency department, or A&E, as emergency rooms are called in Britain, while patients ready to be discharged from the hospital often have nowhere to go as a result of cut social services, caused by a lack of government funding and severe staffing shortages. 

During winter time, response times had increased across the country, with patient handover delays reaching unprecedented levels by November, while in recent months the pressure has generally declined, the current situation remains still complex.

Healthcare Employee Shortage

Like the majority of other Western nations in the post-COVID-19 times, the UK experiences a shortage of ambulance doctors and paramedics with an overall number of existing vacancies of more than 50,000.  

While hiring of new medical personnel to the UK EMS sector is currently ongoing, this is currently associated with serious problems, as almost half of all new employees are workers from other countries, because the government either cannot train enough people inside the country or pays too little to attract new British workers. At the same time, Brexit limited the ability of nurses to come to the UK from the European Union, which contributed to the deepening shortage of paramedics in the country.  

Despite existing problems in the sector, the government plans to take additional measures to complicate further strikes in the domestic healthcare and EMS sector by introducing anti-strike legislation and to avoid further massive strikes later this year. 

At the same time, many UK analysts call on the need for the reform of the UK healthcare and EMS sectors, which were established in their current form as far back as in 1948 and whose management system and structure have been seriously outdated as of now. One of the reasons for this is the rapidly aging population in the UK, as well as a chroming underfunding of the system,  which puts serious pressure on the outdated system.

However, the governments are aware of this, and some steps in this direction have been taken.  so far An example of this became the two-year recovery plan to help restore emergency care. As part of the plan, there are plans to reduce waiting times and improve patient experience. That includes purchases of 800 new ambulances and the creation of 5,000 new beds with the planned volume of investments of 1 billion pounds ($1.2 billion).

As part of these plans, the government plans to free up space in hospitals so that people who are well enough to leave can be discharged and get the care they need at home or in the community.