Resident Doctors in England to Launch Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that junior physicians will walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
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 government, pressing the health minister to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused 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, hoping the minister to see that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving recent graduates a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in general practice.
More details will follow shortly.
