Doctors are to strike in November over pay and jobs

The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced that resident doctors are to strike in England for five days over pay and jobs.

The strike will last for five consecutive days between 7am on 14 to 19 November as the BMA claims doctors are “struggling to find jobs” and are ending up unemployed and “shifts in hospitals go unfiled” and patient waiting lists get longer.

Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee (RDC), said, “This is not where we wanted to be.

“We have spent the last week in talks with Government, pressing the Health Secretary to end the scandal of doctors going unemployed.

We know from our own survey half of second year doctors in England are struggling to find jobs, their skills going to waste whilst millions of patients wait endlessly for treatment, and shifts in hospitals go unfilled. This is a situation which cannot go on.

We talked with the Government in good faith – keen for the Health Secretary to see that a deal that included options to gradually reverse the cuts to pay over several years, giving newly trained doctors a pay increase of just a pound an hour for the next four years.

We hoped the Government would see that our asks are not just reasonable but are in the best interests of the public and our patients, and would also help stop our doctors leaving the NHS.

Better employment prospects and restoring pay are a credible way forward that would work for doctors, work for Government, and work for our patients.

“The Health Secretary’s 11th hour letter to us today makes vague promises for some degree of change to jobs and training for two years hence, showing little understanding of the crisis here and now, or a real commitment to fix it.

“While we want to get a deal done, the Government seemingly does not, leaving us with little option but to call for strike action.”

The Health Secretary Wes Streeting said, “It is preposterous that the BMA have rushed headlong into more damaging strike action a week after its new leadership opened discussions with the government.

“After resident doctors have received a 28.9% pay rise, the Government has been clear that we simply cannot go further on pay this year.”

He added, “The BMA’s reckless posturing will harm patients, leave other doctors and NHS staff to pick up the pieces and divert resources away from rebuilding the NHS. I urge the BMA to call off these needless strikes and come back to the table.”