Resident Doctors in the UK to Begin Five-Day Strike in November
Doctors in the UK are preparing to stage a five consecutive day walkout next month, in protest over jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, urging the health minister to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming 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 prevent our physicians departing from the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details will follow soon.
