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Doctors in England are preparing to begin a five-day walkout in November, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.

Walkout Information

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

Resident doctors, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the health department.

Reasons Behind the Strike

The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, urging the health secretary to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”

“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”

He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to see that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”

“We trusted the authorities would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public 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 working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice.

Further information will follow soon.