Resident Physicians in England to Launch Five Consecutive Day Walkout Next Month

Medical professionals in the UK are preparing to begin a five consecutive day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment.

Walkout Information

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

Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the health department.

Causes of the Walkout

Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, urging the health minister to resolve the scandal of unemployed physicians.”

“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused 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, hoping the minister to see that a agreement offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions 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 recognize that our asks 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 anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in primary care.

Further information will follow shortly.