Resident Physicians in England to Launch Five-Day Strike in November
Doctors in the UK are preparing to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA stated that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, 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, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health minister to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement including options to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would recognize that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our those we treat and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
Further information will follow shortly.
