Resident Physicians in England to Stage Five-Day Strike in November
Doctors in England are preparing to stage a five-day walkout in November, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action 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 officials, pressing the health secretary to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians leaving the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice.
More details will follow shortly.
