Junior Physicians in England to Stage Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month

Medical professionals in England are preparing to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, in protest over pay and employment.

Strike Details

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

Junior physicians, who make up about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the health department.

Causes of the Walkout

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

“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”

He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to see that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”

“We trusted the government would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our physicians departing from the NHS.”

About Resident Doctors

Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.

Further information are expected soon.