🔗 Share this article Junior Doctors in the UK to Launch Five-Day Strike in November Medical professionals in the UK are set to begin a five-day strike in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment. Strike Details The 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 NHS, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the health department. Reasons Behind the Strike The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee stated, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health secretary to resolve the scandal of doctors going unemployed.” “We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts go unfilled. This cannot continue.” He continued, “We negotiated sincerely, hoping the minister to understand that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, providing recent graduates a pay increase of only £1 per hour for the coming four years.” “We hoped the authorities would recognize that our asks are not just fair but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.” Who Are Resident Physicians? Junior physicians have anywhere up to eight years’ experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or as many as three years in general practice. Further information are expected soon.