Junior Doctors in the UK to Stage Five-Day Strike in November
Medical professionals in England are preparing to stage a five-day strike in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who make up about half of all doctors in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations 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 resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to see that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would recognize that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our physicians departing from the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information are expected soon.
