Junior Doctors in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Doctors in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with government, pressing the health minister to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to see that a deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help stop our physicians departing from the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
More details will follow shortly.
