Junior Doctors in England to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Doctors in the UK are preparing to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am 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 failed negotiations with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health secretary to end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming 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 those we treat and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice.
Further information will follow shortly.
