Resident Doctors in the UK to Launch Five-Day Walkout in November
Doctors in the UK are set to stage a five-day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
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, pressing the health secretary to end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals 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 deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information will follow shortly.
