Junior Doctors in the UK to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in England are set to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA stated that junior physicians will walk out for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health minister to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to see that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our demands 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 practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information are expected soon.