Resident Doctors in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike in November
Medical professionals in England are set to begin a five-day walkout in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who make up about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike 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 been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health minister to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to see that a agreement including options to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our those we treat and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in general practice.
More details will follow shortly.
