Resident Physicians in the UK to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in England are preparing to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that junior physicians will walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, urging the health minister to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to see that a agreement including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
Further information will follow shortly.
