Resident Doctors in England to Stage Five-Day Strike in November
Medical professionals in England are set to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA stated 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 nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
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 officials, urging the health secretary to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians 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 cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to see that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
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 primary care.
Further information are expected shortly.