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

Doctors in England are preparing to stage a five-day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.

Strike Details

The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will walk out for five consecutive days from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.

Resident doctors, who make up about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.

Causes of the Walkout

The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health minister to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”

“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in England are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals 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 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 authorities would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors departing from the health service.”

Who Are Resident Physicians?

Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or up to three years in primary care.

Further information will follow shortly.