Resident Physicians in the UK to Stage Five Consecutive Day Strike in November
Doctors in England are set to stage a five-day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health secretary to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the community and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information will follow soon.