Resident Physicians in England to Begin Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to stage a five consecutive day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, urging the health secretary to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the community and our those we treat and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
Further information will follow soon.
