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

Strike Details

The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will strike 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 National Health Service, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks 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, pressing the health secretary to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.”

“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This cannot continue.”

He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to understand that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the next four years.”

“We hoped the authorities would see 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 physicians departing from the health service.”

Who Are Resident Physicians?

Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, based on their field, or as many as three years in general practice.

Further information are expected soon.