Junior Physicians in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in England are set to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks 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 spent the last week in talks with officials, urging the health minister to resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians 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 is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to see that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians departing from the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details are expected shortly.
