Junior Doctors in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in the UK are preparing to stage a five-day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, urging the health minister to end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians leaving 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 primary care.
More details will follow soon.
