Resident Physicians in England to Launch Five-Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.
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 government, urging the health minister to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to see that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, providing recent graduates a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors departing from the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
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 primary care.
Further information are expected soon.