Junior Physicians in the UK to Launch Five-Day Strike in November
Doctors in England are preparing to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, urging the health secretary to resolve the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to see that a deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in primary care.
Further information are expected soon.
