Junior Doctors in the UK to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to begin a five-day strike next month, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced 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 doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health minister to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in general practice.
Further information will follow soon.
