Junior Doctors in the UK to Stage Five-Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day walkout in November, in protest over pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that junior physicians 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 doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, urging the health secretary to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to understand that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help stop 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 as many as three years in primary care.
Further information are expected shortly.
