Junior Physicians in the UK to Begin Five-Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in England are preparing to stage a five-day walkout next month, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that junior physicians will strike for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Reasons Behind the Strike
Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health secretary to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment 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 health secretary to see that a deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the authorities would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.
Further information will follow soon.