England's resident doctors to strike again in November

By Sam Tabahriti

LONDON (Reuters) -Resident doctors in England will go on strike next month as part of escalating industrial action over job insecurity and pay erosion, their trade union said on Thursday. 

The strike follows failed talks with the government to produce what the British Medical Association called a "credible plan" to address unemployment among newly qualified doctors and years of real-terms pay erosion.

Last year the newly elected Labour government quickly reached a settlement with doctors for a 22% pay rise, hoping to draw a line under a long-running series of strikes under the previous Conservative government.

However, doctors returned to the picket lines this year after asking for more than the 5.4% the government had awarded in its next pay round. Ministers refused to go any higher, citing increasingly strained public finances.

DOCTORS SAY THEY HAVE NO OTHER OPTION

The BMA announced on Thursday a new wave of strikes by resident doctors, qualified physicians who make up nearly half of the medical workforce, beginning at 0600 GMT on November 14 and lasting until 0559 GMT on November 19.

The BMA has been seeking a 29% rise to restore pay to 2008 levels, arguing that half of second-year doctors now struggle to find jobs despite widespread staff shortages.

"While we want to get a deal done, the government seemingly does not, leaving us with little option but to call for strike action," Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's resident doctors committee, said.

Fletcher said Wes Streeting, Britain's health minister, sent a last-minute letter on Thursday promising possible changes to jobs and training in two years. Fletcher said the letter showed little understanding of the urgent issues doctors face.

Streeting, in a statement reacting to the strike, urged the BMA to call it off and described the action as "unreasonable and unnecessary".

"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," he said, reiterating that the government simply cannot go further on pay this year.

Public backing for doctors' strikes has been limited, opinion polls have shown.

($1 = 0.7451 pound)

(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti, editing by William James and Ed Osmond)