Junior Physicians in the UK to Stage Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to begin a five-day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks 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 countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to see that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors departing from the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
Further information will follow shortly.
