Resident Physicians in England to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to begin a five-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 consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health minister to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England 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 continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to see that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
Further information will follow soon.
