Junior Doctors in the UK to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day strike in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that junior physicians will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who make up about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
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 government, pressing the health minister to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
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 general practice.
Further information will follow soon.
