() :The health service in England is facing its second day of strikes by junior doctors on Thursday as an Indian-origin medic, also a senior office bearer of their union, urging the government to make a “credible” pay offer so the six-day industrial action can be called off.

With over 1.2 million appointments already rescheduled since industrial action began, Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) Junior Doctors Committee, told the BBC that they are willing to negotiate to end the longest strike in the history of the National Health Service (NHS).

“We strike again today. Tag @BMA_JuniorDocs in all your posts and we’ll keep sharing!,” the official X handle of the British Medical Association (BMA) Junior Doctors posted early Thursday morning along with the hashtag #PayRestoration. The X post also provided a link which had guidance (for their units across the country) on strike action. Among the other things, the link to the website also has ‘Our aims’, which lists three main demands of the junior doctors in the NHS in England taking strike action in 2023 and 2024.

Apart from the demand to “achieve full pay restoration to reverse the steep decline in pay faced by junior doctors since 2008/9”, the Junior Doctors also want the government to “agree on a mechanism with the Government to prevent any future declines against the cost of living and inflation” and “reform the DDRB (Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body) process so pay increases can be recommended independently and fairly to safeguard the recruitment and retention of junior doctors.”

Junior doctors are qualified medical graduates undergoing their specialist training in NHS hospitals and are critical to their operation making up almost 50 per cent of the health service workforce. They earn, on average, between GBP 29,000 and GBP 40,000 based on years of experience, which can vary between one to nine years. These doctors have been taking industrial action demanding better pay since last year because they claim their NHS salary increases have not been in line with inflation.

The talks between junior doctors and the UK government broke down last month as they rejected an offer of a pay rise averaging 3 per cent, on top of an average of nearly 9 per cent junior doctors received in April last year.

“Anyone from the government could still come to us today and if we thought that the offer was credible, and if we can resume talks and build on that, then we can stop our strike action for the rest of the week,” Trivedi told the BBC on Wednesday.

However, UK Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said junior doctors must call off their strike before she can get back to the negotiating table. “I urge the BMA Junior Doctors Committee to call off their strikes and come back to the negotiating table so we can find a fair and reasonable solution to end the strikes once and for all,” Atkins said in a statement.

 “January is typically the busiest time of the year for the NHS and these strikes will have a serious impact on patients across the country. Over 1.2 million appointments have already been rescheduled since industrial action began, including over 88,000 during last month’s strikes. The NHS has again put in place robust contingency plans to protect patient safety and it is vital anyone who needs medical help continues to come forward,” she said.

 NHS England is advising patients in a life-threatening emergency to call 999 and for everything else to use the 111 medical helpline.

 FGN8

MYANMAR-CONFLICT

Ethnic armed group battling Myanmar’s military claims to have shot down an army helicopter

Bangkok(AP) An ethnic minority armed group that is battling Myanmar’s military government said they shot down a helicopter believed to be on a resupply mission in a combat zone in the northern state of Kachin on Wednesday.

 The helicopter was shot down soon after taking off from an army outpost to return to its base in Myitkyina township, the state’s capital, around 11:50 a.m., Col. Naw Bu, a spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Army, told The Associated Press. An independent online news outlet supportive of the resistance, Khit Thit Media, reported late Wednesday that six soldiers aboard the aircraft had been killed and one survived, but other reports said seven had died. Khit Thit also published photos of battered bodies in military uniforms and charred corpses purportedly from the crash site.

Myanmar’s military, which came to power in February 2021 after seizing power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, has been battling pro-democracy resistance forces loosely allied with armed ethnic minority groups seeking greater autonomy.

There was no immediate comment from the military government about the helicopter claim and The Associated Press was unable to contact any witnesses in the remote area. A spokesperson for Kachin Human Rights Watch, who asked to be identified only by his first name Jacob for fear of being arrested by the military, said the group’s members in the area had confirmed to him that a helicopter had crashed there.

Independent media sympathetic to the resistance movement also cited witnesses to the crash and at least two videos circulating on social media showed an object apparently on fire and trailing black smoke make a steep and uncontrolled dive into a hilly area. The falling object was not readily identifiable. Whether it had been shot down or suffered mechanical failure could not be confirmed.

Naw Bu said the aircraft crashed near the Nahpaw army outpost, close to Nam San Yang village in Waing Maw township, which is about 390 kilometers (240 miles) northeast of Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city.

The military government has control of air space and frequently carries out bombing and strafing missions against which resistance forces have little effective defense. The raids frequently cause civilian casualties.

In October 2022, airstrikes killed as many as 80 people, including members of the Kachin Independence Army, guests and entertainers at the group’s anniversary celebration in a remote mountainous area in Kachin’s Hpakant township.About a year later, the military was accused of carrying out an airstrike that killed about 30 people, including about a dozen children, in a camp for displaced persons in Laiza, a town that also hosts the Kachin Independence Army headquarters.

The Kachin Independence Army, which is better armed and has more combat experience than other ethnic armed groups, in May 2021 claimed to have shot down another military helicopter.