A HUGE CROWD rallied in Whitehall, opposite 10 Downing Street on Monday afternoon, the first day of the British Medical Association’s three-day strike of its 75,000 junior doctor members which concludes tomorrow at 7.00am.
Doctors on the 2,000-strong rally carried BMA placards and self-made posters and every time a double-decker bus or an ambulance went past there was a roar of greeting.
The JDs were very animated and enthusiastic as they chanted their demands – ‘Fair pay or we’ll go away!’ and ‘Claps don’t pay the bills!’
Dr Andrew Simon, a junior doctor in obstetrics and gynaecology at Barking Havering and Redbridge Hospital, told News Line: ‘We do 12 hour shifts. We are meant to have a half hour break every six hours, but sometimes we don’t get one.
‘It may happen on the labour wards that three patients may go into labour at the same time, when we are short of staff.
‘The triage registrar and the gynaecology registrar may be busy. We may have to decide which woman to deliver first, and this may pose a risk for the baby of the woman that has to wait.
‘There are multiple causes for the problems. Under the Tory coalition, they’ve cut down on the number of places at medical school, so thousands of young people applying for medical school can’t get in.
‘For those who do get in and qualify as doctors after the five-year course at medical school, there are not enough foundation year posts for all of them to start work.
‘In Spring 2020, although I was training in obstetrics and gynaecology, I was seconded to work on Covid wards. We only had flimsy aprons and Covid masks. So many patients died.
‘After I left, they wrote to me and my colleagues telling us they had over-paid us by £1,600 when we worked on the Covid wards. Where could we find that money? It took us a year to pay the money back.
‘For the responsibility of the work that we do, our pay is low. Our morale is down.
‘Because of the poor quality of life for doctors now, many are emigrating to Australia and New Zealand. This Tory government does not care. They want to privatise the NHS.
‘A three-day strike is a good start and we have a new leadership in the BMA. In 2015, one-day strikes didn’t work. We need to keep striking. We do need a general strike to defend the NHS.’
Vishal, a first year JD, said: ‘I mean it’s just so unfair. We’ve worked six years to get to be junior doctors. It feels like we can’t help people the way we want to because of lack of staff and resources. When we are on-call during the day, we see lots of patients in A&E and we are forever trying to find beds for them.’
‘Junior doctors have lost 26.1% of their pay over the last 15 years and the government are signalling that they’re going to cut our pay further, which is really difficult to stomach,’ Dr Rob Laurenson, Co-Chair of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee said on Monday.
He pointed out that the BMA is acting after ‘a resounding ballot result which showed 98% of doctors wanted to take the strike action.’
Laurenson continued: ‘Nurses have lost 20% in real terms and they are struggling just as much and I think it is really important that nurses’ unions get a good deal for their members as well – really important, because doctors need nurses and nurses need doctors.
‘This is an issue that is affecting many professions and we are seeing it play out in loads of different ways in health care.’
Cars and buses beeped vociferous support for the well attended doctor’s picket lines outside both the Maudsley Hospital and King’s College Hospital in South London.
Emma Carson, Community Sexual and Reproductive Health Doctor said: ‘This struggle is not just about restoring pay for junior doctors. It is about saving the National Health Service (NHS).
‘We can no longer fill our rota gaps, even with locums, with the rates that are being paid in our hospitals.
‘Nurses are at the end of their tether, junior doctors are at the end of their tether, physiotherapists, health care assistants, consultants – all are at the end of their tether. We will not have an NHS in five years time if we do not pay and fund our NHS fully.’
Eric Long said: ‘We are a team from the Anaesthetic Department at Woolwich Hospital and we are here in support of the doctors strike because over the last 10 to 15 years doctors’ pay has stagnated and has not gone up in line with the costs of living or inflation. Essentially, we want restoration of that pay, which works out at a 25% increase.
‘’The direction the NHS is going in is completely unsustainable. It is not just doctors, we are also out here for the nurses, the ambulance workers, the consultants and any other public services that continue to get punished by this Tory government.
‘The TUC should be doing a lot more. We all need to stand up now and do our bit.’
At Charing Cross Hospital, junior doctor Ben Walker said: ‘We are on strike today, because we want fair pay. Junior doctors’ pay is 26% behind, especially when the rate of inflation is more than 10%. We don’t want to strike, we want to be with the patients to help them get better. But with an attempt to get a better pay offer, negotiations have fallen on deaf ears. We will continue to strike until our pay demands are met.’
On the picket line outside St Thomas’ hospital opposite the House of Commons, junior doctor Stuart Innes told News Line: ‘We’re not really asking for a pay rise, just the restoration of our pay to what it was. After 10 -15 years of government cuts we can’t staff our rotas.
‘After many years in medical school and many years as a junior doctor, many people are leaving for Australia or New Zealand where they can get better jobs, conditions and pay.
‘We haven’t hit A&E targets for years. Emergency and primary care are really struggling and the blame lies with the government. They have completely refused to engage with the health care team. (Health Secretary) Barclay didn’t attend Friday’s meeting at all. That shows how much they care about staff and patients. We have fewer Intensive Treatment beds than any other European country.’
There was a very lively picket at the Whittington hospital in North London, where Dave a Foundation Level 1 junior doctor from Bristol hospital told News Line: The NHS has been privatised by stealth for longer than we know, it’s not like America where it’s obvious when you get a bill.
‘Instead here it’s outsourcing which is not immediately obvious, but over time the services become much worse. You can look at videos of people in the US with a stroke refusing to call an ambulance because they can’t afford to pay the fee.
‘When the government do increase funding it gets siphoned off to the private sector. They go on about employing agency staff then they argue for austerity. I agree with kicking out the Tories we should be striking together with other unions.’
A BMA rep on the picket line at St George’s Hospital in Tooting told News Line: ‘We’re here for pay restoration. A doctor now is paid just 3/4 of what they were in 2008. We’re here to put that right.’
On a lively picket at North Middlesex hospital, a junior doctors rep, Clara Salice, told News Line: ‘JDs have had a 26% real terms pay cut in 15 years that means newly qualified doctors are paid only £14 an hour.
‘Junior doctor is a confusing term as it includes any doctor fresh out of university until they become a consultant, it sometimes takes 10 or15 years. Some JDs are highly trained brain surgeons with 10 years experience and perhaps earning £25 an hour.
‘We feel these are not fair wages, to reflect our skill, years of training and the responsibility of our work. NHS staff are leaving in huge numbers and pay restoration is the first step to keep our essential staff.
‘We’re all in this together. We support all striking workers across the NHS and the public sector. The NHS is in crisis. People are dying every day waiting for ambulances, lack of staff is at the heart of this crisis.
‘The Tories have underfunded the NHS so I would like to see a government that prioritises the population. The NHS needs to be well funded and safe for patients.’
At Homerton Hospital in Hackney, east London, Dr Andrew Myerson said: ‘I’m striking because 10 years ago the NHS was the best healthcare system on the planet. It was cheapest for taxpayers and it got the best outcomes. If you look at what has happened in the last 10 years, our waiting list is the worst in NHS history as 7.2 million are waiting for care.
‘We’ve got a government that doesn’t care about the health of the people and we now have 500 people dying unnecessarily every week from avoidable delays and from inability to access emergency care.
‘People are also dying at home waiting for an ambulance or dying in the back of an ambulance or collapse in an A&E department after a long wait.
‘We’ve seen too many patients suffer because the government refuses to listen to calls to fix the system, and they refuse to address the haemorrhaging of staff.
‘That’s why we’ve been pushed into this situation to strike. Going on strike is our only hope to defend our patients, colleagues and our NHS.’
Wendy Morgan, psychiatric registrar, said: ‘It’s about pay restoration because they’ve eroded our pay by 26% over the past 15 years.
‘The profession is in crisis and patients are suffering as a result. With the cost-of-living soaring junior doctors earn just £14 an hour.
‘We’re asking for a £5 increase to £19. People are leaving in droves and there are large waiting lists. If we look after our doctors we look after our patients.
‘I’m in total support of all health workers coming out on strike.’