Resident Physicians in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to stage a five-day walkout in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with government, 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 continued, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the health secretary to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians 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 will follow soon.
