Junior Physicians in England to Stage Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in the UK are set to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that junior physicians will walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
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 government.
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 officials, pressing the health secretary to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors leaving the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in general practice.
Further information will follow shortly.
