Resident Physicians in the UK to Begin Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to stage a five-day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The BMA announced that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.
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.”
“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to understand that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”
“We trusted the government would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.
More details will follow soon.
