montez taken the initiative to fight against land grabbers and those who occupy parks and other spaces i've been plan is said development projects need to be regulated. if the government wants to reclaim wetlands inexpensive strain, they believe we'll get all covered. i do know that there are laws and a plan for the development of the city, but these are hardly implemented or enforced by the city development authorities, with district administration or law enforcement agencies. the un phase doctor could become the world's most popular mega city by 2030, but few believe that it's prepared to handle this growth can be children. i'll just say about dot com. ah, you're watching al jazeera, these are the headlines this. the will come when is agile tina have arrived in one of the very latest pitches of ecstatic crown who have been gathering so great the players entertain a beat france on penalties in what is considered to be one of the best finals ever

. the table parade through the center of the capital. later on tuesday, the us state department says it's concerned for the rest of the world after a surge of corona virus cases in china, washington says the virus could mutate, posing a renewed global threat, which it kinda has more from hong kong. the procurement of internationally made cobit 19 vaccines in china is being seen as an acknowledgment that domestically made vaccines are simply not available enough or efficient enough to deal with what is largely understood to be a wide spread and fast growing outbreak of cobit 19 across the country health authorities have been reluctant throughout the pandemic to rely on or procure overseas made vaccines. the fact that they're now saying they're doing so is adding to international concerns that the real level of cove at 19 in the country and say talented associated with it. as comma, serious than that which the health officials in china are actually reporting. the u

. s. supreme court has extended a controversial trump era immigration policy. the rules imposed back in 2020. allow the government to use coven 19 protocols to block the entry of migrants on the border with mexico. still in the us and a panel investigating last january capital 6 attack says donald trump should face criminal charges for his role in the riot. the former president says, the move is to block his 2020 full run for the white house. anti terrorism judges in tunisia have sentenced a former prime minister to prison just 2 hours after his arrest. ali laredo is accused of sending fighters to syria, the opposition and not a party denies the charges calling his imprisonment a political attack. all right, those are the headlines. i'm emily anglin. the niece continues here on al jazeera, after inside story to stay with us. talk to alger 0, we are a band in by the international community. we listen,

we are paying for the war against terrorism and someone we meet with global news makers. i'm talk about the story stuck on out. you see, walk out by health care workers threatened to disrupt the lives of millions of people in the u. k. the stand off between public service employees and the government shows no sign of a basic. we ask what's going wrong with the u. k, it's national health service. this isn't side story. ah hello there and welcome to the program. i'm the starz year. now the u. k is national health service has been a source of pride from millions for more than 70 years. but now staff angry about

pay and working conditions are set to go ahead with another round of strikes, leading to even greater disruption for the very people that the institution is meant to serve. now says we'll walk off the job on tuesday for a 2nd time. this month, the government has refused to negotiate with them. ministers say they are waged, amanda unaffordable. on wednesday, more than 10000 ambulance workers including paramedics will down tools, hundreds of military personnel are preparing to step in to help. john hall has more now from london. britney's pricing for a 2nd week of highly disruptive public sector. industrial action with no sign of the government's willingness to give in to the demands of striking workers already . big numbers are being taught it up around the cost to the economy of this strike action, particularly retail and hospitality in the run up to christmas. and there are very real concerns in the health sector about the effective, likely nurses and paramedics ambulance workers strikes on the ability of hospitals like this one behind me to cope the national health service already. of course,

in the minds of many on the brink of collapse were to go through that list of striking public sectors. this week the nurses are closer to the big one going on strike on tuesday. the 2nd day of walk out by nurses and its historic, it is only the 1st time in the history of the national health service. the nurses conducted such widespread strides to be followed on wednesday by ambulance workers at paramedics and then customs and immigration officials, postal and rail workers with fire fighters and teachers balloting for potential action in january as this threatened to go on into the new year, were for the speaking of the union say that their members have for far too long now being affected by low pay, by real terms, wage cox's pay has failed to keep pace with inflation pretty much since the economic crisis of 2010 enough is enough. they say they'll go on for as long as it takes with their members now struggling more than ever in the face of a cost of living crisis. i energy costs and spiraling inflation. equally steadfast,

of course, is the government that warns that higher pay will only few inflation itself already eating into the pay packets of ordinary workers. and it warns that higher pay will have to be paid for with higher taxes. well, the, any chance itself is a state funded health system founded in 1948 back then in cost, around $20000000000.00 a year to operate by 2021 and cost about 337000000000 according to government figures. and then the pandemic head, the and just needed an additional 6000000000 dollars each year for frontline services. so now it has more funding and more stuff than it did pre covered 19, despite that in october, more than 7000000 people were on a waiting list. that means nearly 12 percent of the population in england is waiting for help consultation. and also the increase in energy costs and touring inflation has reduced the value of its budget. this means the health service must now do more with significantly less the.

well, let's now bring it out. guests from london were joined by oak san pisec. she's a pharmacist and also electra at the u. c. l. school, a pharmacy from copenhagen, denmark. we have jeff lazarus, he's a research at the boss, atlanta institute for global health, and also from london is jonathan porters. he is a professor of economics and public policy and the department of political economy at kings college london. i will welcome to will. thank you so much for joining us on inside story town. i want to start with you, you know, sitting in london and i want to talk a little bit about the working conditions for nurses and other health cast off at the time. because this isn't just about pay. but they're also talking about what it's like to work there. what's it like at the moment on an any kind of average day for health care professionals? where are the biggest challenges? well, certainly we see that the backlogs from the co, the 19 kinda mac has put a huge pressure on any chest hole service. and this is all across from really

community level and g. p appointments are also here in the u. k. recently there have been pressures and pharmacies with antibiotics, shortages, instruct a outbreaks, and at the hospital levels as well. so nearly half of all health care workers say that they are working on they don't have the resources available to them to do their job. to the extent that they think is needed. so that's really worrying statistic to see that more than half of health care workers they, they can't do their job up to the standard that they normally would do on top of health care search system. as taking a huge beating through the pandemic and health workers themselves also very burned out. of course, i want to get to some of the psychological tone in just a moment. but just touching on what you were saying there. ana, about staffing shortages. is this really about staffing shortages or about money because i guess they're both related. but jonathan,

let me throw that one to you because we're talking about pay demands here that a very, very far apart. how does that go anyway towards talking about what we're dealing with stopping shortage. if that's one of the biggest issues i'm, well, ah, nurses have seen their pay cut by about coming out now to 15 or 20 percent in real terms over the past 10 years in common with much of the public sector actually where there were pay phrases. so it's important to remember that what we're seeing in the public, not just in the, in a chest, but public services. the hall isn't just about the post pandemic. obviously the pandemic is made things considerably worse for the sector, but it is really the product of 12 years of under funding of public services and pressure on public sector pay, which has been particularly bad. i think i'm, although low paid workers have not done so badly, it sort of middle range nurses and other similar workers as when the public sector,

who of course are sort of in some sense, the backbone of what actually gets done in the public sector. people who've been there long enough to actually know their job and know where they're doing, but not have long enough that they've become elevated the rates of senior management, where they don't have to do work directly. so it's those people who have come under most pressure and i think for a lot of them it's just become too much. so pay as you said, it is a very, very large part of the problem. and hence, sol, money to solve. it is a large part of the solution, but it's not the only thing by any means. it's this sort of progressive rundown of public services, which are very much predated the pandemic. and i think sort of trying to relate this just to what's happening to the last year or so is quite wrong or, or at least misleading. this is something which has been going on for, for quite a while, and i think is now showing up in the public wants to do this. we're beginning to realize that actually, you know, if we want decent quality public services, we are going to have to pay for them. and that is going to be somewhat higher taxes

and that of course is very difficult political message to sell. so and in, you mentioned that, that now as a seen pay cuts in real time, and a lot of that they're arguing has to do with inflation. and part of what they're asking for now is an inflation related pay rise. and jeff, let me ask you about this, because i'm curious about how other countries are approaching this. and tying pay rises to inflation seems like a possibly quite dangerous thing to do. yes, not just you're tying it always to inflation, but your workers receive a cost of living adjustments. and we've seen unusually high inflation as, as everyone knows. so with this massive inflation the, it's, you know, maybe there's been declines in real wages, but people also exhausted. they've been running a marathon through the pandemic, and just as it looks like things are getting better, they're hearing that there won't be new resources. some people are leaving the field. there are nurses who do not want to stay in health care because they're not

seeing that it's a good place to work anymore. people are very busy as like santa mentioned with the backlog and we've had lower cases, lower numbers of people diagnosed, diagnosed for many different conditions, fewer people initiated our treatment to this. this sense of, you know, we've been overwhelmed for so long, but now things are getting better. it's, you know, they've come to the end of the marathon and been told you have to run a couple of kilometers. and on top of that, you have to carry, you know, a rucksack full of weights, which is, you know, the, the salary issue because of the current inflation. we're seeing this in spain, there's been protests in madrid. there's protests planned for, for january. and there's concern, i think, all across europe that the conditions for the health care system are not truly being addressed and that we haven't really not to be cliche but built back better, like so many that oats and data. and this is also not just the health care sector, but many other public sectors as well. jonathan, just before we depart from the,

the specific pay issue, finances i was just, it really struck me how large the differences between what the nasa they're asking for and what the government is talking about. 19 percent versus. and i'm the closer to 4 percent in your mind, what's actually realistic? um, i think what you, i, i, i'm not in the negotiating room. the nurses have made clear that they are willing to settle for considerably less than the 19 percent. the government has not made has said that it is absolutely refusing to talk, so we're not at the moment at the moment in that sort of territory of saying, well if you go off a couple of percent, all calm down a few percent were in the position where the nurses have said, yes, we made a very large demand which reflects what we think we deserve quote, but we know that that's unrealistic and will settle for less and the government is saying, you are going to take what you're given. we're not interested in even in any further discussion. so in some sense, saying what that a realistic level is,

is slightly academic because the government is just saying, we are not prepared to budge an inch at present when they do move off that position . if they do move, all that position will be when we can sort of talk about what's realistic. but i think the best way of looking at this overall is to say, look, pe arises in the public sector are currently running your own average earnings in the public sector. i've gone up by about 2 and a half percent to 3 percent of the last year. earnings in the private sector have gone up by $6.00 to $6.00 and a half percent. inflation has been about 10 percent. so this idea that an increasing public sector pay is what's going to set off a wage pri spiral, or add to the inflationary pressures that are already there. it simply does north add off of connecting all make perspectives. it's just smote the smokescreen from the government. frankly, it's not worth that he's here is late. so the reticent then of the government to even negotiate with masses that changes the tone of the discussion somewhat. jeff,

you mentioned the what exhausted you talked about how this has been like a marathon on a how much do you think the psychological toll of the pandemic and, and living through and working through that is playing into what we're seeing now. again, looking back to what our earlier panelist said, of course this is we had 12 years over a decade of austerity in any chest budget cuts, etc. and then a global health crisis that really demanded so much from everyone within the health care system. so, and you know, everyone here in the u. k. stood out outside your doorstep and applauded our health workers. but then when they are asking for something that is really quite fair because in the u. k, a nurses are paid quite low. if you compare that to international standards, their pay less, that colleagues and other countries, it just so in this instance,

so demoralizing for health work yourself to, to go through some thing that was absolutely traumatizing for so many where they had to say good health. people say good bye to love ones through i phones and i pans. we didn't even have sufficient p. e at the beginning of the pandemic. and really for what is supposed to be a quite developed health care system. those budget cuts that lead up into the pandemic, played out quite severely. we saw that actually, we were not in a good place when the pandemic hit. and then all of the crack started to, to even grow during that time. and now because we went at went into the week, i think now it's on its knees, particularly if nurses continue to on strike and, and they have the right to make the demands for, for what they're worth. and we need to absolutely value all health workers who

really it is a matter of life or death when we have quality care and delivery of these important services. but i do think morale is now at a lowest point. well, we also saw services cut during the pandemic in order to make way for emergency services. and we were saying earlier that that's left what more than 7000000 people on waiting lists, 12 percent of the population, not enormous. i know that the n h s for all of its failings when you compare it to other systems, had always said that one of the best things about it was that it provided equal and actually relatively good access. a jeff that's obviously no longer the case. how does it measure up now? yeah, i mean, it was inevitable when hospitals were overwhelmed because of covered 90 dealing with the virus. they weren't able to carry out their regular services. we're seeing this all across your waiting lists, backlogs, and you know, we went from

a period where people were, you know, literally applauding is like santa said, not just in the u. k, but in spain and in other countries. applauding, health care workers, applauding nurses to messages that well you need to keep on working. your real salaries are worth less because of inflation. we're not putting more money into the health care services, so it is very dirt demoralizing. we were advertising for a couple of nurses on a project. i run in spain and it was very difficult to get any applicants. i don't think the message we're sending is, you know, become a nurse. we need you, we, we respect you. we're, you know, we're happy to have you in the system it's, we're going to overwork you and when you ask for more in salary, because of real inflationary issues, we're not gonna even negotiate with you. so we've talked a little bit about salaries, but it goes much deeper than that. it seems. we've talked about how there's been chronic under funding, but there are also other structures in place that have been problematic by my understanding. there was

a lot of red tape and bureaucracy specifically in the n. h. s. a lot of that disappeared during the pandemic. and in order to be able to do really rapid emergency care, and i'm hearing from health care professionals that a lot of that is now back, i believe. what last year? $12600.00 operations were canceled because of administrative areas. jonathan, how much of a structural weakness is the red tape and bureaucracy that exists in the system in international terms that is not over bureaucratized, it has considerably less in terms of management. you're the ratio of management to actual hands on health care stuff is actually rather low in the n h s. i think the problem is not that the h as is as towards too many bureaucrats. it's rather that the efficiency of its processes and procedures is not what it could be. and so in particular, are there been significant issues with it? there are significant issues with the respectful i t systems that of course,

we all know from our own jobs and from dealing with, with any service that when the i t doesn't work, that has a terribly negative effect on the productivity of the actual people who are trying to deliver the service. oh ok. so let me throw that one to you. then do nurses and other health care professionals feel that the money that's being spent, the money that is already that is being spent appropriately because there was more money spent in the system during the pandemic and now than before. so it's not just not being spent in the right places and clearly the nurses are communicating that it isn't b like the right places because it's not getting into the hands of the workers themselves that are giving the care to our patients. so in order for that to occur, of course i, we do need greater investment. so if we tried doing restructuring and finding efficiencies within the system itself. and that attempt has happened

several times. but in the end you can continue to restructure and reshape a budget. but you will just eventually need to have a greater influx of investment to match what the needs in this real time throughout still the follow to co 19 demand. so i think really the workers are speaking. i'll allow that. you know, the system as it is now isn't working. i feel like this is a really complex issue though, because a large number of people analyze number of organizations have looked at this and there are plenty of reports. and in, in the public area about this, the institute for fiscal studies and one of their import specifically on the annette chest, said that despite the fact that stuff undoubtedly feel stretched, it's not obvious that adding more staff or money would immediately uncover the system. so let me ask you, jeff, looking at the u. k, from outside and comparing it to other systems. what's the problem with the system

that winds that sort of cogs? what i'm seeing though, in spain, denmark countries were work better is probably a bit similar. there's an absorbed capacity. you know, you have to bring in people, you have to improve systems storing. i'm the panoramic last year i had an opportunity to spend a day shadowing a gp and just seeing how many people were going to get turned away at the end of the day. yet if they had it on one more person, there wasn't necessarily space for that. person, so things you know, more than more than one thing needs to change to improve on the system. so again, i don't know specifically what the problem is. i'm in the n h s. we've also seen there during the pandemic shortages. our staff, due to sickness, both coded and, and other and not mrs. leo is being quickly replaced, but as i mentioned and you know, people are exhausted, they're overwhelmed and there's more and more care that needs to be provided because it wasn't provided during the adamic. well,

i also dealing with an aging population who on 10 the best shape to take lee in the u. k. when you compare it to other european populations, people have wanted this demographic bomb. and jonathan, i want to ask you, do you think that this demographic bomb has now exploded in the u. k? well, i mean, the demographic pressures have been going on for some time. and i think the, the, the, again, what you have here is a combination of demographic pressures, but also some wider social and economic forces. so in the u. k. off until about to that, the early 2010, we had life expectancy increasing, but it was increasing across the board. and healthy life expectancy was also increasing. what we've seen since around the turn of the 2010. so is that that life expectancy increase has, has slowed very sharply and indeed gone into reverse for people who are poorer and sicker and for them healthy life expectancy is not going up. so we've had this sort

of widening of the socio economic dividers and i, and full in their way in which healthy life expectancy has progressed in previous years. and that of course, does add significantly to the pressures india knight. yes, i'm so, i mean, more broadly, you're right, it's not, it isn't just about money, but money does matter quite a bit. and i think, you know, people forget that as recently as 2010, the n h s had among its highest satisfaction ratings in its entire life. and actually a white for treatment were basic lay entirely under control. and that was the consequence of um, 10010 or 12 years of quite sustained on being and staffing increases which, which then unfortunate late awe slackened off a bit. so i don't think money would solve everything in the if, as is right. of course it would take time k through good is probably an essential

ingredient. i'm the one point which we haven't mentioned, which i think is very well recognized that i was, is a particular blockage so that the n h s. one of the reasons for the delay at the moment is the i just simply like spans and a big reason it simply likes beds. is it, it's hard to move elderly, but relatively healthy people out of hospitals into social care because of the separate but quite frankly, even worse, problems in the social care system or the social care system, which is considerably less well funded. ne chest is having a big knock on effect on demand for the n h. s. well, let me ask you, then jeff, about how one might spend money differently. so for asking for more resources to be funneled into the n h s. when you look at how this has played out in other countries, like spain, like denmark, and would a more devolved local system, what best that would more focus and funding for social and community care? what better is that? what's lacking? i think so. i mean the n h s, at least the u. k. has community pharmacies,

i think this needs to be expanded. we need to reduce our reliance on going to hospitals. the panoramic really showed that clearly, but in general you have a community pharmacies where you can go and get some of the care or even care that might have been provided by a g p and get that at the pharmacy. so that's called tasks shifting to, to the pharmacy using the hospitals more last resort. and we've seen in other areas the role of community centers, community care, social care, and community based and jose and reaching the most marginalized. because as was mentioned here, things are little worse for everyone, but they're much worse for the most marginalized population, the poorest of the poor. well, i say that the not feel trust, i think tank in the u. k. has said that this is a narrow window of opportunity potentially for reform where there was potentially a lack of political well or, or funding asana in your mind. you're sitting in london very briefly. is this that

moment? well i think so when we look at a per head, the government you case spends less on the n h us than many other comparable countries. there are less beds and doctors per head as well when we look at comparable countries. so now that certainly nurses have group the attention of not only do you k but, but you know, this news has made headlines around the world because it's the 1st strike and it's in its history. and that this is that the pressure is really culminating, and the time for investment and appropriate response is now while we'll see if it is indeed that moment talks on a thank you to all of our guests on pisec, jeff lazarus and jonathan pushes and thank you to for watching, you can see this program again, any time by visiting our website that's out there or dot com. and for further discussion do go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. and you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is at a inside story for me and associates

a and the whole team here. and uh huh. bye for now. and hong kong was once celebrated as a beacon for press freedom in asia. but as china tightens its grip on the city journalist fair, they can no longer speak truth to power journalists and media organizations like oral us, half so respect and comply with the law in 2019 increasing fears that china was eroding hong kong autonomy and judicial independence, spots mumps of massive, sometimes violent protests. the national security law, which criminalizes terrorism to session subversion, and collusion with foreign forces was introduced in 2020. it might be

a conclusion talking to you now, accepting your interview. it has become a kind of impression that dangerous occupation for people who are still interested in quoting the facts. why do people tell stories and take risks to share their experiences? from every corner below, binding us together and inspiring us to expand our realities? why? because they most award winning voices telling groundbreaking stories with on i'll just hear the latest news as it breaks. the killing is brought immediate condemnation from the palestinian authority to describe this whole bloody murder with detailed coverage. health officials say the transmission of this virus among humans is very

rare, but they're worried because the summer season is about to begin from around the world. formula. we probably be okay, living in a building like this with blown off windows when the temperature plummets tough conditions really take. that's how ah euphoria in argentina, huge crowds gathered to welcome home their faithful world cup champions. ah, hello, i'm emily anglin. this is al jazeera alive from dough house, a coming up china rice is to install more hospital beds and the u. s. forms. the surgeon corona virus cases is a concern for the world. and you.