Resident Physicians in the UK to Launch Five-Day Walkout in November
Doctors in the UK are preparing to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, urging the health secretary to end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. 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 pay reductions over several years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
More details are expected soon.