Junior Physicians in England to Stage Five-Day Strike Next Month
Doctors in the UK are preparing to stage a five consecutive day strike in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
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 minister to end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK 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 continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to see that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information will follow soon.
