Junior Doctors in the UK to Begin Five Consecutive Day Strike in November
Doctors in the UK are preparing to stage a five consecutive day strike in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with government, pressing the health secretary to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to see that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help stop our doctors departing from the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in primary care.
Further information will follow soon.
