🔗 Share this article Junior Physicians in the UK to Begin Five-Day Strike Next Month Doctors in England are set to begin a five-day walkout next month, in protest over pay and employment. Walkout Information The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that resident doctors will walk out for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to 7am on 19 November. Resident doctors, who constitute about half of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after unsuccessful talks with the government. Causes of the Walkout The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “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 unemployed physicians.” “Our survey reveals half of second-year doctors in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.” He added, “We negotiated sincerely, keen for the health secretary to see that a deal offering solutions to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over a number of years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.” “We trusted the authorities would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our physicians leaving the health service.” About Resident Doctors Junior physicians 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.