Junior Physicians in England to Stage Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in England are preparing to stage a five consecutive day strike in November, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff 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 stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health minister to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in general practice.
Further information will follow shortly.
