Resident Doctors in England to Begin Five-Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five-day strike next month, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that junior physicians will strike for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, urging the health secretary to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to see that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice.
More details are expected soon.
