Junior Doctors in England to Begin Five-Day Walkout in November
Doctors in the UK are set to stage a five-day strike in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with government, pressing the health minister to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to see that a agreement including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help stop our physicians leaving the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
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 are expected shortly.
