Resident Doctors in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half 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 commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health minister to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the health secretary to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would see that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians 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 are expected shortly.
