Resident Physicians in England to Stage Five-Day Strike in November

Doctors in England are preparing to stage a five-day strike next month, in protest over jobs and pay.

Walkout Information

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

Junior physicians, who constitute about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department.

Reasons Behind the Strike

Dr Jack Fletcher stated, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health secretary to end the scandal 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 countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.”

He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the minister to see that a deal including options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”

“We trusted the government would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.”

Who Are Resident Physicians?

Resident doctors have anywhere up to eight years’ experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice.

Further information will follow shortly.