Junior Doctors in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to begin a five-day walkout next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with government, pressing the health minister to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand 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 hoped the authorities would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors departing from the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information will follow shortly.
