Junior Doctors in England to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Doctors in the UK are preparing to stage a five-day walkout next month, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up 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
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “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 scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a deal including options to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing recent graduates 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 best interests of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians departing from the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
More details are expected shortly.