Resident Doctors in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike in November

Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to stage a five-day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.

Strike Details

The BMA announced that junior physicians 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 National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government.

Reasons Behind the Strike

Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, urging the health minister to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”

“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”

He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to understand that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse 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 recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors departing from the NHS.”

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.

More details are expected shortly.