Resident Doctors in the UK to Begin Five-Day Strike in November
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five-day walkout in November, in protest over jobs and pay.
Strike Details
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 failed negotiations 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, pressing the health secretary to resolve the crisis 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 wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We hoped 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 leaving the health service.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
More details are expected soon.
