Junior Doctors in the UK to Stage Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to stage a five consecutive day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
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 end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our physicians departing from the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
More details are expected soon.