Resident Doctors in England to Stage Five-Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to stage a five consecutive day strike in November, in protest over pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA stated that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “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 scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to understand that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, giving recent graduates a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped 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 physicians departing from the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
Further information are expected shortly.
