Resident Doctors in England to Launch Five-Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in England are preparing to stage a five consecutive day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health secretary to resolve the scandal 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 hospital shifts remain vacant. 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 slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help stop our doctors departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
Further information are expected shortly.
