Junior Doctors in the UK to Begin Five-Day Walkout Next Month

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

Walkout Information

The British Medical Association (BMA) stated 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 unsuccessful talks with the health department.

Causes of the Walkout

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 government, urging the health minister to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”

“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”

He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a deal including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over several 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 asks are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help stop our physicians departing from the health service.”

Who Are Resident Physicians?

Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.

Further information will follow soon.