Junior Doctors in the UK to Stage Five Consecutive Day Walkout in November

Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, in protest over jobs and pay.

Walkout Information

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

Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.

Reasons Behind the Strike

The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “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 scandal of doctors going unemployed.”

“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”

He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the minister to understand that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming 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 stop our doctors leaving the health service.”

Who Are Resident Physicians?

Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.

Further information will follow soon.