Resident Doctors in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Doctors in England are set to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA stated that junior physicians will walk out for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with government, urging the health secretary to end the scandal 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 countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help stop our doctors departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
Further information are expected shortly.
