Junior Doctors in England to Stage Five-Day Strike in November
Doctors in England are preparing to stage a five consecutive day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
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 government, urging the health minister to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals 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, 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 raise of only £1 per 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 patients and would also help prevent our physicians departing from the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
Further information will follow soon.
