Resident Doctors in England to Launch Five-Day Walkout in November
Doctors in England are preparing to stage a five-day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will strike for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike 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, pressing the health secretary to end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to understand that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would recognize 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, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
Further information are expected soon.
