Junior Physicians in the UK to Launch Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in England are set to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health secretary to resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the health secretary to understand that a deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests 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 practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
More details will follow soon.
