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Doctors in England are preparing to begin a five consecutive day strike next month, due to disputes regarding jobs and pay.

Strike Details

The BMA announced that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to November 19 at 7am.

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

Reasons Behind the Strike

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

“Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in England are struggling to find jobs, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.”

He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to understand that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving recent graduates a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.”

“We hoped the government would see that our demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.”

Who Are Resident Physicians?

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 are expected soon.