Junior Doctors in the UK to Stage Five-Day Strike Next Month
Doctors in the UK are preparing to stage a five consecutive day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
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 government, pressing the health secretary to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts 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 deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the NHS.”
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 primary care.
More details are expected soon.
