Resident Doctors in England to Stage Five-Day Strike Next Month
Doctors in England 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 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who make up about half 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
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 government, urging the health minister to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians 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 added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would see that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
More details will follow shortly.
