Junior Doctors in the UK to Stage Five-Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five-day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, urging the health minister to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the health secretary to understand that a deal including options to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
More details will follow soon.