Resident Doctors in England to Begin Five-Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in England are preparing to begin a five consecutive day strike in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all doctors in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government.
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 secretary to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the authorities 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 health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice.
More details will follow soon.
