Junior Physicians in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike in November

Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to stage a five consecutive day walkout in November, in protest over jobs and pay.

Strike Details

The BMA stated that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.

Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the health department.

Causes of the Walkout

The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health minister to resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”

“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”

He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to understand that a deal including options 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 hoped the authorities would see that our demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our physicians departing from the health service.”

Who Are Resident Physicians?

Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.

Further information will follow soon.