Junior Doctors in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals 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 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
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 secretary to resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped the government would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
More details will follow soon.
