Resident Physicians in the UK to Begin Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November
Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, in protest over pay and employment.
Walkout Information
The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.
Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.
Causes of the Walkout
The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health minister to end the scandal of unemployed physicians.”
“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”
He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to see that a agreement including options to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing recent graduates 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 fair but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the NHS.”
Who Are Resident Physicians?
Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.
Further information will follow soon.
