Resident Physicians in the UK to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in England are set to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA stated that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half 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, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, pressing the health minister to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“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 endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would recognize that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
More details will follow soon.
