Resident Doctors in England to Begin Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in England are set to begin a five consecutive day walkout in November, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will walk out 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
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 minister to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to see that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our asks 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 NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
Further information are expected shortly.
