The junior physicians, or physicians in graduate medical education, walked out last Tuesday, in what was the country’s first physician strike in four decades. Roughly 4,000 nonurgent operations had to be rescheduled. The 40,000 medical residents had two additional 48-hour strikes planned after postponing them in December for talks with the government.
The physician union, the British Medical Association, hopes to build on early progress made since the last strike. However, BMA junior physician and committee chairman Johann Malawana, MD, said in a statement the third strike is scheduled for Feb. 10 and even emergency care will be withheld, if “significant, concrete progress,” is not made, according to Reuters.
The BMA has taken issue with the most recent employment contract proposed by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, saying it does not provide protections against dangerously long shifts. The contract was meant to create a seven-day healthcare service and improve weekend treatment by increasing physician pay overall, but reducing the number of hours physicians are able to receive overtime pay on the weekends.
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