Resident Physicians in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to stage a five consecutive day strike in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (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 constitute about half of all doctors in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, pressing the health minister to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details will follow soon.
