Junior Doctors in the UK to Launch Five-Day Strike in November
Doctors in England are preparing to begin a five consecutive day strike in November, in protest over pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that junior physicians will strike for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, urging the health minister to resolve 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 endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over several 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 demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details will follow shortly.
