Resident Physicians in the UK to Begin Five-Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to begin a five-day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
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 government, urging the health minister to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients 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 agreement including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
More details will follow shortly.