Junior Physicians in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health secretary 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 skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to see that a agreement 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 coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help stop our physicians leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
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.
Further information will follow shortly.
