Junior Physicians in the UK to Stage Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in England are set to stage a five-day walkout in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health secretary to end the scandal 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 millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of 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 demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
Further information are expected shortly.
