Junior Physicians in England to Stage Five-Day Strike in November
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five-day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that junior physicians will walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing 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 skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to see that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help stop our physicians departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information are expected shortly.
