Resident Physicians in the UK to Stage Five-Day Walkout in November
Doctors in England are preparing to begin a five-day strike in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row 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 proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “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 crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to see that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would see that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians 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 shortly.
