Resident Doctors in the UK to Stage Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in the UK are preparing to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, in protest over jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with government, urging the health minister to end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste 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 slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information will follow soon.
