Resident Physicians in England to Stage Five-Day Strike Next Month
Doctors in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day strike in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that junior physicians will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations 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 officials, pressing the health minister to resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to see that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
More details will follow soon.
