Junior Physicians in the UK to Begin Five-Day Walkout in November
Doctors in the UK are preparing to begin a five consecutive day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
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 constitute about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health secretary to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a deal including options to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice.
More details will follow soon.