Resident Doctors in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike in November
Medical professionals in the UK are set to stage a five-day walkout next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health secretary to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians departing from the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information will follow soon.
