Resident Physicians in the UK to Launch Five-Day Strike in November
Doctors in England are set to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “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 doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would see that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details will follow shortly.
