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

Medical professionals in the UK are set to stage a five consecutive day walkout in November, in protest over jobs and pay.

Walkout Information

The BMA stated that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.

Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.

Reasons Behind the Strike

The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health secretary to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”

“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”

He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”

“We trusted the government would see that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians departing from the health service.”

About Resident Doctors

Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.

Further information are expected soon.