Junior Physicians in England to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month

Doctors in England are preparing to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.

Strike Details

The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am 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 health department.

Reasons Behind the Strike

The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health secretary to end 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 added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”

“We trusted the government would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the health service.”

About Resident Doctors

Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.

More details will follow shortly.