Resident Physicians in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in England are set to begin a five-day walkout next month, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that junior physicians will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health minister to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our asks 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 as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details are expected soon.
