🔗 Share this article Junior Physicians in England to Begin Five Consecutive Day Strike in November Doctors in the UK are set to stage a five-day walkout in November, in protest over pay and employment. Walkout Information The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that resident doctors will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November. Resident doctors, who make up about half of all doctors in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government. Causes of the Walkout Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, pressing the health secretary to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.” “We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.” He added, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the next four years.” “We trusted the government would see that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest 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 as much as eight years of experience practicing in hospitals, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice. Further information will follow soon.