Junior Doctors in England to Begin Five-Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to stage a five consecutive day strike in November, due to disputes regarding 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.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, urging the health minister to resolve the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information will follow shortly.
