Junior Physicians in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Doctors in the UK are set to stage a five-day walkout in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.
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 officials, urging the health secretary to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to see that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors 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.
