Junior Physicians in the UK to Begin Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in the UK are preparing to stage a five-day strike next month, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health minister to resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving recent graduates a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
More details will follow soon.
