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Medical professionals in England are set to begin a five consecutive day walkout in November, in protest over jobs and pay.

Walkout Information

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

Junior physicians, who make up about half of all doctors in the NHS, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government.

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, urging the health minister to resolve the crisis of unemployed physicians.”

“We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment 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 understand that a agreement including options to gradually reverse the pay reductions over a number of years, giving newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the next four years.”

“We trusted the authorities would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our patients and would also help prevent our physicians leaving the NHS.”

Who Are Resident Physicians?

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

Further information are expected soon.