Resident Physicians in England to Launch Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in England are preparing to stage a five-day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health secretary to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our physicians departing from the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
More details are expected soon.
