UK cost of living crisis triggers the biggest strike in the history of health service.

The biggest strike in the public health system’s history in the UK took place on Monday, when tens of thousands of nurses and ambulance personnel walked off the work.

The walkout is the most recent in a string of protests that have interrupted Brits’ lives for months in response to workers’ demands for pay increases to keep up with double-digit inflation, particularly in the public sector. In recent months, a number of occupations have walked off the job in protest of lower pay, including teachers, train drivers, airport baggage handlers, border agents, driving instructors, bus drivers, and postal workers.

A cost-of-living crisis brought on by drastically rising food and energy prices has left many people struggling to make ends meet, according to teachers, health professionals, and many others.

In December, Britain’s annual inflation rate reached a 41-year high of 10.5%. According to the Conservative government, paying public sector employees 10% or more will just boost inflation.

The walkout puts additional strain on the National Health Service, which is sponsored by the government and is already struggling to keep up with demand due to winter viruses, staffing shortages, and backlogs created by the COVID-19 epidemic.

The 48-hour protest by nursing unions is expected to cause hundreds of appointments and procedures to be rescheduled, although emergency care and cancer treatment will continue, according to the unions.

During a daylong strike, the ambulance service claims it will answer the most urgent calls. However, Business Secretary Grant Shapps warned that the strike might endanger lives and make having a heart attack or stroke “a postcode lottery” for some individuals.

There have been “no negotiations at any level whatsoever with the government,” according to Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union that represents certain ambulance personnel, on the subject of wages. “Come to the table and negotiate – pull your sleeves up and negotiate on the salary in the NHS,” she pleaded with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The Royal College of Nursing union’s president, Pat Cullen, added that the strike might be “quickly ended” if the government made a “real” compensation offer.

The administration claims it would only discuss the coming year while the unions are asking for salary increases for the present year. In order to “look forward and participate in a constructive discourse” about wages for 2023–2024, Health Secretary Steve Barclay asked unions to end the strikes.

England is impacted by the nursing strike on Monday. Union walkouts have been put on hold in Scotland and Wales, where semiautonomous governments are in charge of health policy.

The introduction of a measure by Sunak’s government that will make it more difficult for important workers to strike by establishing “minimum safety levels” for railways, firefighters, and ambulance services that must be maintained during a walkout has also enraged unions.