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Doctors in England are set to begin a five-day strike next month, in protest over pay and employment.

Strike Details

The British Medical Association (BMA) announced 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 constitute about half of all medical staff in the NHS, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government.

Causes of the Walkout

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 resolve the crisis of doctors going unemployed.”

“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”

He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the health secretary to see that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, providing recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”

“We hoped the authorities would see that our asks are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our those we treat and would also help prevent our physicians departing from the NHS.”

About Resident Doctors

Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, based on their field, or as many as three years in primary care.

Further information will follow shortly.