Junior Doctors in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month
Doctors in England are preparing to begin a five-day walkout next month, 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.
Junior physicians, who make up 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
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “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 scandal of doctors going unemployed.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to see that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the community and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.
More details are expected shortly.
