Resident Doctors in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in England are preparing to stage a five consecutive day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health minister to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the health secretary to see that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our demands are not just reasonable 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.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
Further information are expected soon.
