Resident Physicians in the UK to Stage Five-Day Walkout in November

Doctors in England are set to stage a five-day strike next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.

Walkout Information

The BMA announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.

Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.

Reasons Behind the Strike

Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, urging the health minister to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”

“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”

He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the health secretary to see that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several years, giving recent graduates a raise 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 community and our patients and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the NHS.”

Who Are Resident Physicians?

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 primary care.

Further information will follow shortly.