Junior Doctors in the UK to Stage Five-Day Strike in November
Medical professionals in England are preparing to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The BMA stated that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health minister to resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize 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 leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in general practice.
Further information will follow soon.
