Resident Physicians in England to Launch Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November

Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.

Strike Details

The BMA stated that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.

Resident doctors, who make up about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the government.

Reasons Behind the Strike

Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health secretary to resolve the scandal of unemployed physicians.”

“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”

He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of 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 demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our physicians departing from the NHS.”

About Resident Doctors

Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.

Further information are expected shortly.