Junior Physicians in the UK to Begin Five-Day Walkout in November
Doctors in the UK are set to stage a five-day walkout in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (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 make up about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Reasons Behind the Strike
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 officials, urging the health minister to end the scandal 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 endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, giving recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the government would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
Further information will follow shortly.