Resident Doctors in the UK to Launch Five-Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to stage a five consecutive day strike in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA stated that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with government, urging the health minister to resolve the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to see that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details are expected soon.
