Resident Physicians in England to Stage Five-Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to begin a five consecutive day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
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.
Resident doctors, who make up about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week 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 struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving recent graduates a raise of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help stop our physicians leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details will follow shortly.
