Resident Physicians in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month

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

Walkout Information

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

Junior physicians, 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

The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health minister to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”

“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”

He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the health secretary to understand that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”

“We hoped 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 physicians leaving the NHS.”

Who Are Resident Physicians?

Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in primary care.

Further information are expected shortly.