Junior Doctors in England to Stage Five-Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in England are set to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government.
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, urging the health secretary to end 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 endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in general practice.
Further information will follow shortly.
