Resident Doctors in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to begin a five-day strike in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA stated that junior physicians will walk out for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, pressing the health secretary to resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to see that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
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.
Further information will follow soon.
