Junior Physicians in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Doctors in England are preparing to stage a five-day walkout next month, in protest over jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that junior physicians will walk out for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, urging the health minister to resolve the scandal 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 go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians departing from the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
More details will follow shortly.
