Resident Doctors in England to Launch Five-Day Strike in November
Doctors in the UK are preparing to begin a five consecutive day walkout in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, urging the health secretary to resolve the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help stop our physicians 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 up to three years in general practice.
More details are expected shortly.
