Junior Doctors in England to Launch Five-Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in England are set to stage a five consecutive day strike in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.
Strike Details
The BMA announced that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Resident doctors, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks 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 officials, pressing the health minister to end the scandal 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 millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the health secretary to see that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”
“We hoped the authorities would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our physicians leaving the NHS.”
About Resident Doctors
Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in general practice.
More details will follow soon.
