Junior Doctors in England to Stage Five-Day Strike Next Month

Doctors in England are preparing to stage a five consecutive day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.

Walkout Information

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

Resident doctors, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.

Reasons Behind the Strike

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 officials, pressing the health secretary to resolve the scandal of unemployed physicians.”

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

He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to see that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”

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

About Resident Doctors

Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.

More details are expected soon.