Junior Physicians in the UK to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in England are set to stage a five-day strike in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA stated that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all doctors in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health minister to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“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 shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
More details will follow soon.
