Junior Physicians in the UK to Stage Five-Day Walkout in November
Doctors in the UK are set to stage a five consecutive day strike in November, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that junior physicians will walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health minister to resolve the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in the UK 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 continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to understand that a deal including options to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information will follow shortly.