Resident Physicians in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Doctors in the UK are set to stage a five-day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health secretary to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”
“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a agreement including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, giving 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 reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our physicians departing from the health service.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
Further information will follow soon.
