Junior Physicians in the UK to Stage Five-Day Strike Next Month
Doctors in England are preparing to begin a five-day strike in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
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 end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors 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 prevent our doctors departing from the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in primary care.
Further information will follow shortly.
