Junior doctors prepare for latest strike as health chief warns of 'significant impact'
"Tired and frustrated" junior doctors will "keep on fighting" at the picket lines for a five-day strike next month - in what is thought to be the longest single period of industrial action in the history of the health service.
Fed-up medics have been inundated with offers of better pay and a better work-life balance in Australia, and one Down Under territory even sent buses advertising jobs to strikes in the UK.
Now members of the British Medical Association (BMA) will walk out from July 13 to 18.
Dr Shivam Sharma, BMA West Midlands regional junior doctors committee, told the Shropshire Star: "We are frustrated as doctors. Last week I worked a 50-hour week so was in the hospital most of the time. I spoke to lots of doctors. They are just really tired. They are working tremendously hard and it doesn't help when they have to worry about their finances as well.
"We study for five or six years in medicine and come out with £100,000 in student debt. We have to pay for our own training, exams and publications. It all comes out of a doctors' pay packet.
"Doctors are fed up with it. At the last strikes there was a bus advertising for doctors to go and work in Australia. A friend of mine is moving in August and she said how much better the working life is there and how they value doctors a lot more. I have friends who live there and say how their hospitals are so much better staffed. It's a real shame it's not like that here. We had a good healthcare system, but the quality of care has seriously declined."
He added: "What we're asking for is not unreasonable. We've had a pay cut of 26 per cent in real terms. What it would mean is that instead of £14 an hour, junior doctors would be on £19. It would cost the taxpayer £1 billion, but that's a drop in the ocean when you consider money spent on test and trace and PPE contracts.
"We're going to carry on fighting. The Government has the ability to call off these strikes, but until they come to their senses, things won't change. We don't want to be on strike but it's our last resort. We are going to keep fighting, not just for ourselves but for our patients.
"As doctors, we are patients as well. We've seen the decline in the quality of care. We've got waiting lists of 7.4 million. That's more than the population of Scotland. By valuing doctors and focusing on retention, we can start dealing with the waiting lists."
Dr Nick White, Chief Medical Officer, NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin said: “As is the case for all parts of the country our junior doctors are a significant part of our medical workforce and as such the strike action will have a significant impact for both patients and services.
"We will ensure that plans are in place to continue with as much of our services as we can but envisage, we will need to scale down outpatients appointments and planned surgery to ensure we prioritise our most urgent and critical care service.
“During the strike action, it will be even more important for people to choose services wisely so that care is available to patients who need it most. This includes using 111 online as the first port of call for health needs and continuing to only use 999 if it is a life-threatening emergency.
“GP practices will continue to be open during the junior doctors’ strike, along with minor injury units (in Whitchurch, Ludlow, Bridgnorth and Oswestry), and pharmacists can also help and are experts in medicines for minor health concerns.”
A BMA survey showed just over half of the nearly 2,000 junior doctors said they have received more job advertisements from recruiters to overseas jobs since strikes were announced.
Co-chairs of the BMA junior doctors committee Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: "We are announcing the longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS's history - but this is not a record that needs to go into the history books.
"Even now the Government can avert our action by coming to the table with a credible offer on pay restoration.
"Restoring pay can stem the flow of Australian job adverts in doctors' social media feeds - and lead to a future 75 years of doctors being paid fairly, in a rebuilt workforce and NHS that this country can continue to be proud of."
