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Medical professionals in England are set to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, in protest over jobs and pay.

Strike Details

The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am.

Resident doctors, who make up about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.

Reasons Behind the Strike

Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, pressing the health minister to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.”

“Our survey reveals 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 shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This cannot continue.”

He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the health secretary to see that a deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, giving recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”

“We trusted the government 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?

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

Further information will follow soon.