Junior Doctors in England to Launch Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health secretary to resolve the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the health secretary to see that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of only £1 per 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 patients and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in general practice.
More details will follow shortly.
