Resident Physicians in England to Launch Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in the UK are set to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health secretary to end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, 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 just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians departing from the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
Further information will follow soon.
