Resident Physicians in England to Begin Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to stage a five consecutive day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who make up about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “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.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details are expected soon.