Resident Doctors in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Strike in November
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to begin a five-day strike in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who make up about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
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 officials, pressing the health secretary to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to see that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
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 general practice.
Further information will follow shortly.
