Junior Doctors in the UK to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to stage a five-day strike in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, 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 stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health minister to resolve the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to understand that a deal including options 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 authorities would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
More details are expected shortly.
