Junior Doctors in England to Launch Five-Day Strike in November
Doctors in England are preparing to begin a five consecutive day strike in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.
Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all doctors 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 spent the last week in talks with officials, urging the health secretary to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians departing from the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.
More details will follow shortly.
