Resident Doctors in England to Begin Five-Day Strike Next Month

Doctors in the UK are preparing to begin a five-day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.

Strike Details

The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that junior physicians will strike for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.

Resident doctors, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the health department.

Reasons Behind the Strike

The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, urging the health secretary to resolve 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 wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”

He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”

“We trusted the government would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our physicians departing from the health service.”

About Resident Doctors

Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.

More details will follow soon.