🔗 Share this article Junior Physicians in the UK to Launch Five Consecutive Day Strike in November Doctors in the UK are set to begin a five consecutive day strike in November, due to disputes regarding pay and employment. Strike Details The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that junior physicians will walk out for five days in a row from 7am on 14 November to 7am on 19 November. Junior physicians, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the National Health Service, are taking this action after failed negotiations with the government. Reasons Behind the Strike Dr Jack Fletcher commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have been negotiating for the past week with officials, pressing the health minister to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.” “Our survey reveals 50% of second-year physicians in the UK are facing unemployment, their skills going to waste whilst countless individuals wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This cannot continue.” He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to see that a agreement offering solutions to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of only £1 per hour for the next four years.” “We hoped the government would see that our demands are not just fair but are in the interest of the public and our patients and would also help prevent our doctors 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 will follow soon.