Resident Physicians in the UK to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in England are preparing to stage a five-day strike in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, 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, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health secretary to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care 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 minister to see that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details will follow soon.
