🔗 Share this article Junior Doctors in the UK to Stage Five-Day Strike in November Medical professionals in England are preparing to stage a five consecutive day strike in November, in protest over jobs and pay. Strike Details The British Medical Association (BMA) stated that resident doctors will strike for five consecutive days from November 14 at 7am to November 19 at 7am. Resident doctors, who constitute nearly 50% of all medical staff in the NHS, are proceeding with the strike after failed negotiations with the government. Reasons Behind the Strike The chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee commented, “This is not where we wanted to be. We have been negotiating for the past week with government, pressing the health secretary to end the crisis of doctors going unemployed.” “We know from our own survey half of second-year doctors in the UK are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment and hospital shifts remain vacant. This is a situation which cannot go on.” He added, “We talked with the government in good faith, keen for the minister to understand that a deal including options to slowly restore the pay reductions over several years, providing newly trained doctors a raise of just a pound an hour for the coming four years.” “We hoped the authorities would recognize that our demands are not just fair but are in the best interests of the public and our patients and would also help stop our doctors departing from the health service.” Who Are Resident Physicians? Junior physicians have as much as eight years of experience working as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to three years in general practice. Further information are expected soon.