Junior Physicians in the UK to Begin Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Doctors in England are set to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who make up about half 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 secretary to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
More details will follow shortly.
