Resident Doctors in the UK to Begin Five-Day Strike in November
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “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 scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to see that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see 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 doctors leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
Further information will follow shortly.
