Junior Doctors in England to Launch Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in England are preparing to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks 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 been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health secretary to end the scandal 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 wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to see that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, giving recent graduates a raise of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details are expected shortly.
