Resident Physicians in the UK to Stage Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Doctors in England are set to stage a five consecutive day strike in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
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 minister to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help stop our doctors departing from the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
More details are expected soon.
