Junior Doctors in the UK to Begin Five Consecutive Day Strike Next Month

Medical professionals in England are preparing to stage a five-day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.

Strike Details

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

Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all doctors in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government.

Causes of the Walkout

The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, urging the health secretary to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”

“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”

He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to see that a agreement including options to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, providing recent graduates a raise of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”

“We hoped the authorities would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our physicians departing from the health service.”

About Resident Doctors

Resident doctors 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 will follow shortly.