Junior Physicians in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health secretary to end 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 talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to understand that a deal including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, providing recent graduates a raise of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public 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 working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
Further information will follow shortly.
