Resident Physicians in England to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in the UK are set to begin a five-day walkout next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health secretary to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“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 shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “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 raise of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians departing from the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information will follow shortly.
