Resident Physicians in England to Begin Five-Day Walkout Next Month

Medical professionals in England are preparing to stage a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.

Walkout Information

The BMA stated that junior physicians will strike for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November.

Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the government.

Causes of the Walkout

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 government, pressing the health minister to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”

“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals endure long waits for care and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”

He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to understand that a deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”

“We trusted the government would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help stop our physicians departing from the health service.”

About Resident Doctors

Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice.

Further information will follow soon.