Resident Doctors in England to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in England are set to begin a five-day strike in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, pressing the health secretary 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 skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to see that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, providing recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the government would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians 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.
More details are expected soon.
