Resident Doctors in England to Begin Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in England are preparing to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that junior physicians 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 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 spent the last week in talks with government, urging the health secretary to end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
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 general practice.
More details are expected soon.
