"UK Health Service in Crisis as Doctors' Strike Looms"

Hospital trusts in the UK are taking desperate measures to limit the predicted loss of life from this week’s NHS strikes, including threatening consultants who refuse to do extra work and tempting junior doctors to cross picket lines by increasing locum pay. NHS leaders and senior clinicians fear the four-day walkout by junior doctors will lead to the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of operations and appointments, while putting seriously ill patients at greater risk. Junior doctors are asking for a 35% pay rise to “reverse the steep decline” they have faced after years of below-inflation pay rises.