Resident Doctors in England to Launch Five-Day Strike in November

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

Strike Details

The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.

Junior physicians, who make up about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.

Causes of the Walkout

The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, pressing the health secretary to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”

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

He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”

“We trusted the government 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 leaving 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 shortly.