Junior Physicians in England to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month
Medical professionals in England are set to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Strike Details
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, pressing the health minister to resolve the scandal 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 millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”
He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to understand that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”
“We trusted the government would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help stop our physicians leaving 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 primary care.
More details will follow shortly.
