Junior Physicians in the UK to Begin Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five-day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with government, pressing the health secretary to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would see that our demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice.
Further information are expected soon.