Junior Doctors in the UK to Begin Five-Day Strike in November
Medical professionals in the UK are set to stage a five-day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “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 unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, 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 minister to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help stop our physicians leaving the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details are expected soon.
