Junior Physicians in the UK to Begin Five-Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in the UK are set to begin a five-day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am 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 failed negotiations with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
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, urging the health minister to resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 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 remain vacant. This cannot continue.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to understand that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would recognize that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice.
Further information are expected shortly.
