Resident Doctors in the UK to Launch Five-Day Strike Next Month

Doctors in England are preparing to stage a five-day walkout in November, in protest over pay and employment.

Strike Details

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

Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.

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 crisis of doctors going unemployed.”

“Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.”

He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”

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

Who Are Resident Physicians?

Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or up to three years in general practice.

More details will follow soon.