Junior Doctors in the UK to Launch Five-Day Walkout in November

Doctors in the UK are preparing to stage a five-day walkout in November, in protest over pay and employment.

Walkout Information

The BMA stated that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November.

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

Causes of the Walkout

Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health minister to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”

“We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients endure long waits for care and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.”

He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to see that a deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.”

“We trusted the government would recognize 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 doctors departing from the health service.”

About Resident Doctors

Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care.

More details are expected soon.