Resident Doctors in the UK to Launch Five-Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in the UK are set to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, 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 spent the last week in talks with government, pressing the health minister to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“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 cannot continue.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to understand that a deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details are expected shortly.
