Resident Doctors in England to Stage Five-Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in England are preparing to begin a five-day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (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 NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with government, urging the health minister to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to understand that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help stop our doctors departing from the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
More details will follow shortly.
