🔗 Share this article Junior Doctors in England to Stage Five-Day Walkout Next Month Medical professionals in England are preparing to begin a five-day walkout next month, due to disputes regarding pay and employment. Strike Details The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that junior physicians will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am. Junior physicians, who make up nearly 50% of all doctors in the National Health Service, are proceeding with the strike after unsuccessful talks with the government. Causes of the Walkout The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “We did not want to reach this point. We have spent the last week in talks with officials, urging the health secretary to end the crisis of unemployed physicians.” “We know from our own survey 50% of second-year physicians in England are facing unemployment, their talents being unused whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and shifts in hospitals remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.” He continued, “We talked with the government in good faith, hoping the health secretary to see that a deal offering solutions to slowly restore the cuts to pay over several years, providing newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.” “We trusted the authorities would see that our demands are not just reasonable but are in the interest of the community and our those we treat and would also help prevent our doctors leaving the health service.” Who Are Resident Physicians? Resident doctors have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in primary care. More details will follow soon.