Junior Doctors in England to Launch Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in the UK are preparing to stage a five-day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, pressing the health secretary to resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors departing from 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 up to three years in primary care.
More details are expected shortly.
