Resident Doctors in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day strike in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors 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 spent the last week in talks with government, pressing the health secretary to resolve the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help stop our physicians departing from the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information are expected shortly.
