Junior Physicians in England to Launch Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in England are preparing to stage a five-day strike next month, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that junior physicians will strike for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with government, urging the health secretary to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to understand that a agreement including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, providing recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice.
Further information are expected soon.
