A striking doctor has been called off the picket line to treat ‘very sick babies’ whose lives could be endangered by a five-day strike by NHS doctors.
Nottingham City Hospital pleaded with the British Medical Association (BMA) for the doctor to be exempt from the walkouts so that they could work in the neonatal intensive care unit.
The hospital ward, which is where the leader of the BMA works, was reportedly concerned about the impact the pay dispute could have on the treatment of the most vulnerable, poorly babies this weekend.
Dr Melissa Ryan, co-chairman of the BMA’s resident doctors’ committee, is a trainee paediatrician who frequently works on the wards in Nottingham. Alongside Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, she has led the BMA into the latest industrial action, which began at 7 am.
However, Dr Ryan – unlike her unidentified colleague – has not been summoned back to Nottingham; she was some 130 miles south on a picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital, in Westminster, London.
A deal has been struck between the NHS and BMA where resident doctors can be forced to work should patient safety be threatened by the industrial action.
Dr Ryan said this deal had been green-lit for her ward. Speaking to The Times today, she said: ‘We don’t have enough senior staff to cover the doctors that aren’t there, the residents. And actually, it is important to us that those very sick babies get a lot of care. So we have granted a resident doctor to go back.’
She joined some 30 junior doctors on the picket line in central London as they chanted: ‘What do we want? Full pay restoration. When do we want it? Now. How are we going to get it? Striking.’
Resident doctors – previously known as junior doctors – went on strike across England from 7 am after discussions with the Government collapsed over pay. Doctors are pursuing a 29 per cent pay rise.
Up to 50,000 resident doctors are believed to have joined the industrial action, which is expected to continue until 7 am on Wednesday.
The strike could cause 250,000 NHS appointments to be axed or postponed and may cost the NHS £87 million in staffing cover, according to think tank the Policy Exchange.
Members of the public have been encouraged to come forward for NHS care during the strike, and are being asked to attend appointments unless told they are cancelled.
The announcement comes as a union leader behind the walkouts by thousands of resident doctors earlier insisted the pay rise strike was ‘not about greed’.
Ex-Conservative MP Edwina Currie had an argument live on air during ITV’s Good Morning Britain with BMA council chair and anaesthetic consultant Dr Tom Dolphin.
It began when Dr Dolphin said: ‘Starting doctors, at the very start, when you look at all the hours they do, the night shifts et cetera, that comes out at £18.62 an hour. That’s an incredible bargain.’ Ms Currie shook her head, interrupted him to say: ‘Not true, that is absolutely not true. That is absolutely not true. And it’s not fair.’
But Dr Dolphin insisted: ‘It is Edwina, it is true. That is our figure.’ Ms Currie responded: ‘The figures are on the NHS website, I’ve got them up now. You are better paid than almost all the people that you are going to be looking after, whether it’s planned or emergency care. Most of the people you look after are elderly people.
‘We’re on pensions. Many people are much worse off than I am. They need your care. You should have a heart; you’re supposed to be compassionate people, you’re in a caring profession. “First, do no harm” – is the first line of the Hippocratic Oath. If you really want to be that greedy, go and do something else.’
Dr Dolphin then said, ‘Edwina, it’s not about greed, it’s about making sure that we have a workforce going forward. When you look at all the doctors who are going overseas, where their salaries… in other countries, where they’re valued properly, where their value is recognised by the governments in those other countries, their salaries are two or three times what they are in the UK.
‘We’re getting a bargain in the UK. All we’re asking for is for our pay to be valued at the same as it was in 2008. We’re not worth any less than we were 17 years ago; we’re not working any less hard than we were 17 years ago. So why are we missing a fifth of our pay?’
This morning, about 15 doctors and supporters converged on Westminster Bridge, near the entrance to St Thomas’ Hospital. Some were holding placards reading ‘£18.62/hour is not a fair wage for a resident doctor’, and ‘Pay doctors, not PPP’.
Others printed out an old tweet by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, blaming the last government for failing to prevent strikes. One man was standing beside the striking doctors, selling copies of The Socialist newspaper to passers-by. Chants of ‘What do we want? Fair pay. When do we want it? Now’ echoed across the bridge.
On LBC radio this morning, presenter Nick Ferrari had a dispute with a caller named Sakshi over the walkouts after she told him: ‘No one’s holding politicians accountable.’
Mr Ferrari responded: ‘Well, they are, Sakshi, I’m sorry to talk over you. They are because the last mob were voted out. Possibly a lot of people are voting because of their handling of the doctors’ strike.
‘Lots of people have salaries that have not risen by the rate of inflation. Many, many of them. And they have to come to terms – now I don’t want it to be a race to the bottom, but this is a group of people who’ve just had 22 per cent… when you start looking at the actual cash involved, this is 12 grand.’
But Sakshi replied: ‘It’s not enough, it’s not even halfway to the journey to fair pay though.’
Mr Ferrari then told her: ‘No, but this idea, we’re not we are in 2008, a junior doctor starting now. Well, he or she wasn’t working in 2008, they’d only just have been born in 2008.’
Sakshi claimed this is ‘not an argument though’, but Mr Ferrari responded: ‘But it is an argument.’
Also involved in an on-air clash today was Talk TV presenter Mike Graham and Dr Melissa Ryan, co-chairwoman of the BMA’s UK resident doctors committee, when she declined to give him her salary.
Asking her what her ‘annual salary’ was, Dr Ryan informed him: ‘So if you start off in a first year, you’re roughly on £38,600.’
Mr Graham interrupted her to say: ‘No, I’m asking about your salary… what’s your salary?’
Dr Ryan said: ‘So my salary depends on how many hours I do… but actually if you want to put it in pounds… It’s about £21 per hour.’
Mr Graham pressed her, saying: ‘But how much did you make? I don’t know how many hours you work – what’s your annual salary, please?’
Dr Ryan responded: ‘So my annual salary is eroded by 28 per cent since 2008, like every single resident doctor here, and all we want is for our pay to be restored.’
But Mr Graham said: ‘No, no, I’m looking for a number. Can you not just tell me your salary, please, how much did you get paid last year?’
Dr Ryan told him: ‘As I said, my salary is eroded by 21 per cent. I’m not here to talk about my salary, I’m here to talk about all resident doctors and how their pay is eroded.’
Mr Graham then responded: ‘No, hang on, Melissa, you’re asking for taxpayers to fund your work, right, because you work for the public sector, you work for the NHS, so taxpayers fund your salary, so I think we’re entitled to know how much you get paid.’
She also said that her salary is ‘not really relevant here’, but Mr Graham told her: ‘Of course your salary is bl***y relevant – you’re striking to get more money, your salary is very relevant, so why can’t you just tell me what it is? What are you trying to hide?’
Outside St Thomas’ Hospital today, Dave Bell, a retired nurse and member of the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, stood in solidarity with striking doctors.
‘Britain’s doctors are the backbone of our NHS,’ he said. ‘If you ask anyone who’s been to a hospital, they’ll tell you those staff work their socks off.’
He called for urgent pay restoration, adding: ‘We need to value those doctors and restore their pay to what it was 15 years ago.’
But he acknowledged the difficulty of strike action within NHS teams.
‘I took strike action once when I was a nurse – of course, it causes tensions. You’re working hard, and if medical staff walk out, it gets even harder for those still in.’
Despite this, he said unity was crucial, adding: ‘In the long run, people have got to work together – the unions too. It can be overcome.’
Resident doctor Kelly Johnson said Mr Streeting’s opposition to the strikes felt like ‘a slap in the face’.
Speaking outside St Thomas’ Hospital, where she works, she told the PA news agency: ‘Every union has the right to strike. It feels like a slap in the face to say that we are doing something that is unjust. Just because we’re doctors doesn’t mean we can’t come out and strike and protest for what we think is right.’
She added: ‘When doctors decide to take strike action, it’s always portrayed as though we’re being selfish, but we’re here as a body to help the public day in day out, to work hours that don’t even end sometimes.
‘Here we are just trying to get what’s right for us so we can do our best to serve the public.’
Patients at St Thomas’ Hospital expressed their support for junior doctors.
Jo Irwin, 72, who was attending the London hospital for a blood test before surgery for a hernia, said she had ‘no hesitation’ in backing the walkout.
‘I am fully behind the strikes and the public should be as well,’ she said.
‘Without these doctors, I would be dead. They are looking after sick people. I am very angry about it.
‘They should get all the money they want – and more than Keir Starmer and his cronies.’
Mohammed Dinee, 42, from Brixton, also gave his backing to the industrial action after being admitted recently with back pain.
‘Today I had a physiotherapy appointment – it was fine, no complaints,’ he said. ‘But I got admitted the other day for back pain – you could feel it. It was difficult to get an MRI scan.
‘They’re strained – being inside St Thomas’, you can see it. I fully support them.’
About 30 doctors and supporters assembled outside Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) this morning, waving placards and cheering as passing cars beeped horns in support.
Cristina Costache, who is a paediatrics registrar at the LGI and a PhD student, said: ‘It’s a very difficult decision to make always, because I love my job and that’s the reason I went into it. I get depressed if I’m not in work. My heart is always at work.
‘But I also care about my colleagues and my profession.’
Dr Costache said: ‘I’m seeing more and more gaps as registrars. There’s always a gap on the paediatric registrar rota. We end up having to cover the job of another paediatric registrar, of even two other paediatric registrars.
‘My SHOs (senior house officers) also have gaps, so I sometimes have to cover their job as well as my registrar job. And that’s not safe and that’s not OK.
‘And the reason that that happens is that they’re poorly paid. If you’re poorly paid, why would you want to come in on your free time when you know you’re going to be on nights the next day and then so three or four nights in a row?’
Dr Costache added: ‘Reducing the waiting list is a really good target, but you’re going to reduce the waiting list if you increase the number of posts, if you give better pay so the jobs don’t leave for another country, like I did from my home country.
‘You’re going to feel differently when you come to work. If you feel valued, it just makes such a big difference. It makes that extra tiredness, that extra coming in and giving away the time that you could have spent with your parents that are ill, or with your family, or with your children. So they have to think about that rather than numbers.
‘I look after quite rare diseases in children, and my patients aren’t numbers.’
Dr Costache said she left Romania due to the poor health infrastructure and lack of investment.
She said: ‘It’s really sad to have seen in the last nine years, since being here, how the NHS is heading that way. Hence, I’m a trade unionist because I feel like I want to tell people, please “don’t do what has happened there”.
‘It can be really scary and really bad, and you don’t want to be in that place.’
GP surgeries will open as usual, and urgent care and A&E will continue to be available, alongside NHS 111, NHS England said.
But NHS regional medical director Chris Strether told LBC radio that the walkout would cause ‘terrible disruption to the lives of people’, adding: ‘Each time it happens across the country, 60,000 appointments are delayed. And I think really is it really is time to say enough is enough.’
It comes after Sir Keir Starmer made a last-minute plea to resident doctors, saying the strikes would ’cause real damage’.
‘The route the BMA Resident Doctors Committee have chosen will mean everyone loses,’ he wrote in The Times. ‘My appeal to resident doctors is this: do not follow the BMA leadership down this damaging road. Our NHS and your patients need you.’
He added: ‘Most people do not support these strikes. They know they will cause real damage. Behind the headlines are the patients whose lives will be blighted by this decision. The frustration and disappointment of necessary treatment delayed.
‘And worse, late diagnoses and care that risks their long-term health. It’s not fair on patients. It’s not fair on NHS staff who will have to step in for cover for those taking action. And it is not fair on taxpayers.
‘These strikes threaten to turn back the clock on progress we have made in rebuilding the NHS over the last year, choking off the recovery.’
Sir Keir also said waiting lists were ‘now at their lowest level in two years, and for the first time in 17 years, waiting lists fell in both April and May’, but added that the BMA leadership puts this ‘progress at risk’.
It comes after Mr Streeting sent a personal letter to NHS resident doctors, saying: ‘I deeply regret the position we now find ourselves in.’
The Health Secretary said that while he cannot pledge a bigger pay rise, he has been committed to progress to improve doctors’ working lives.
He also said he does not now believe the British Medical Association’s resident doctors committee (RDC) has ‘engaged with me in good faith’ over bids to avert the strike.
In the letter sent yesterday afternoon to resident doctors, Mr Streeting said: ‘I wanted to write to you personally about the situation we find ourselves in.
‘This Government came into office, just over a year ago, with a great deal of sympathy for the arguments that resident doctors were making about pay, working conditions and career progression.
‘I was determined to build a genuine partnership with the… RDC to make real improvements on all three fronts.
‘We have made progress together. While some of my critics in Parliament and the media believe I was naive to agree such a generous pay deal to end the strikes last year, I stand by that choice.’
Mr Streeting said resident doctors have now had an average 28.9 per cent pay award under Labour.
He added: ‘Strike action should always be a last resort – not the action you take immediately following a 28.9 per cent pay award from a Government that is committed to working with you to further improve your lives at work.
‘While I’ve been honest with the BMA RDC that we cannot afford to go further on pay this year, I was prepared to negotiate on areas related to your conditions at work and career progression, including measures that would put money back in the pockets of resident doctors.’
Mr Streeting said that based on talks with the BMA aimed at averting strikes, he had been determined to tackle the ‘arduous’ training pathway, and ‘I made it clear that I was prepared to agree actions to reduce the costs you face as a result of training’.
He said he had also been looking at the cost of equipment, food and drink, and ‘was prepared to explore how many further training posts could be created – additional to the 1,000 already announced – as early as possible’.
Mr Streeting said talks had been progressing, but ‘I no longer believe that they (RDC) have engaged with me in good faith’.
The Health Secretary continued: ‘I deeply regret the position we now find ourselves in. The public, and I am sure many of you, do not understand the rush to strike action.’
Mr Streeting later said there is ‘no getting around the fact that these strikes will hit the progress we are making in turning the NHS around’.
He added: ‘But I am determined to keep disruption to patients at a minimum and continue with the recovery we have begun delivering in the last 12 months after a decade-and-a-half of neglect. We will not be knocked off course.’
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mr Streeting took aim at union officials as he accused them of acting in bad faith during talks or being ‘too weak’ to get a grip of their members.
He said he would not cave in to their ‘unreasonable’ demands, adding: ‘I’m not going to let the BMA hold this country to ransom.’
Mr Streeting said union leaders had given the impression they were happy with how negotiations had progressed, and he had believed they would pause industrial action for more talks.
But he was shocked when the BMA’s resident doctors committee pulled the plug on further discussions on Tuesday and announced it would plough on with the strike.
The Secretary of State described it as ‘unprecedented’ for a union to lead its members to the picket line after receiving inflation-busting pay rises totalling 28.9 per cent over three years.
He said that the officials ‘who sat in front of me… either couldn’t carry their committee with them, in which case they’re weak, or have no intention of carrying their committee with them, in which case they’re misleading.’ He said their behaviour risks bringing the wider trade union movement into ‘disrepute’.
Mr Streeting said the BMA owes an ‘apology’ to patients who are left in pain and agony for longer as a result of appointments being cancelled and said they seem to have ‘lost sight’ of their responsibility to ‘Do No Harm’.
Up to 50,000 resident doctors – previously known as junior doctors – are striking in pursuit of an additional 29 per cent pay rise.
Mr. Streeting had made a number of other financial concessions regarding the cost of training, equipment, and exams, but he had refused to compromise on pay.
He yesterday accused doctors of ‘squandering a huge amount of goodwill’ that he had coming into government and revealed the cost of dealing with the impact of the strike – estimated to be ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’ – means he will no longer be able to fund the changes he had offered to bring the dispute to an end.
He called on doctors who disagree with the militancy of the BMA to ‘do the right thing and turn up for work’.
Talking at the Department of Health and Social Care, Mr Streeting said: ‘I’m not going to let the BMA hold this country to ransom.
‘They have seriously underestimated me. They’ve underestimated this Prime Minister. And they’ve underestimated this government. We’re not going to cave into this kind of militancy. That would be, I think, an extremely dangerous precedent to set.’
He said the BMA had adopted ‘hardline tactics’ that ‘punish patients for no good reason’ and stressed: ‘We’ll do everything we can to mitigate against the impact of these strikes. What I can’t do is promise Mail readers that there isn’t going to be a serious impact.
‘There will be lots of people who waited a long time, who were looking forward to their appointments and their treatments this weekend, who will have been notified that their procedure can’t go ahead.
‘Having been through kidney cancer myself, I know what it’s like when you’re waiting for your tests, your scans, your appointments, the anxiety that comes with that.’
The MP for Ilford North continued: ‘The thing that BMA seem to have lost sight of are the three words that more than anything else sum up the responsibility of medics, which is to Do No Harm.
‘What I can’t do, sat here the day before the strikes begin, is honestly say, hand on heart, that I can guarantee that no patients will come to harm. We are doing everything we can with the NHS leadership and operational leaders to avoid that scenario.’
Shifting his attention to the union leaders with whom he had been negotiating, he said: ‘They gave me the impression that the reason that they were in the room was to negotiate and agree a letter that could go to their committee that would see the postponement of strike action.
‘And then I get a result back from the committee, which was a unanimous rejection, which means that the four elected representatives who sat in front of me appearing to engage in good faith either couldn’t carry their committee with them, in which case they’re weak, or have no intention of carrying their committee with them, in which case they’re misleading.
‘Either way, you cannot negotiate with union leaders who are either weak or misleading, or a combination of the two.’ He said the committee should reflect on the views of their wider membership, where support for action is weakening.
He said: ‘When you’ve got a government that has … shown a real willingness to work with you, why on earth would you lead your members out on strike, knowing full well that the cost of that strike is untold misery inflicted on patients and a heavy price that will inevitably come at a cost of a whole range of things that resident doctors want to see improving the NHS?’
Hospitals are attempting to minimise the number of cancellations after acknowledging the harm this induced during previous industrial action. Instead, staff will be spread more thinly to keep as many services running as possible.
Mr Streeting has cancelled plans to attend a friend’s wedding abroad this weekend so he can spend time at the NHS Operational Command Centre and in hospitals to observe the effect of strikes.
He thanked NHS staff who have also cancelled leave to cover for striking doctors, but urged consultants not to get greedy with their overtime rates after the BMA said they should charge £6,000 to provide on-call cover over the weekend.
Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Streeting said: ‘The BMA’s leadership, who I believe are badly letting down both their members and the health service, will find that the costs of the strikes are that they now have a Secretary of State who has both less appetite and less ability to work with them on the kind of measures we were having constructive discussions about last week that would materially improve the working lives of resident doctors and leave them with more money in their pockets.’
Dr Dolphin also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, saying ‘nobody wants to be on strike’ but Mr Streeting’s offer ‘did not contain anything substantive’.
He added: ‘Where we were last year when we started the pay campaign, we were down a third on our pay compared to 2008. So you’ve got last year’s pay offer which did indeed move us towards (pay restoration), but Wes Streeting himself said that pay restoration is a journey, not an event, implying that there would be further pay restoration to come, and we were expecting our pay to be restored in full – that’s our campaign’s goal.
‘We got partway there, but then that came to a halt this year – we’ve only had an offer that brings us up, just to catch up with inflation.’
Asked what it would take for doctors to go back to work, he said the BMA needed to see ‘a clear, guaranteed pathway’ to pay restoration.
He added that ‘it’s very disappointing to see a Labour Government taking such a hard line against trade unions’, adding: ‘They’re talking about punishing the trade union, talking about punishing doctors, holding them back in their training, making sure that they don’t get locum shifts, that kind of thing.
‘People are talking about that which, of course, is not legal. And if we find cases of people being held to detriment for having taken part in strikes, we’ll be fighting their case for them. It’s just disappointing to hear that kind of rhetoric coming from a Labour administration.’
Louise Stead, group chief executive of Ashford and St Peter’s and Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trusts, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that around 500 appointments were being rescheduled, but most work was continuing.
She said: ‘We’ve got about 500 appointments over the five days so far taken down, but we are continuing to do about 96 per cent of the work we’ve had planned.
‘We have obviously become pretty adept at trying to plan for these (strikes), but it’s not something any of us want to do. And it’s not just actually planning for today.
‘It’s the knock-on effect of the ongoing weeks where you have to reschedule appointments. And I think that’s what’s going to make a difference every time. That’s what makes a difference to people’s perception, because their appointments have changed.’
Ms Stead was also asked about NHS trusts refusing catch-up shifts for striking doctors and fellow consultants, which enables them to earn extra cash.
It has been suggested that NHS England move to keep as much pre-planned care going as possible, which means there will be fewer catch-up shifts required, and thus, doctors will not be able to top up their pay.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘There is a finite amount of money. We’ve been told very clearly that we need to manage within the budget we’ve got, and we do need to try and make sure that we reduce the waiting list, which I think you’ll see have come down, so we will not be having the resources in order to do a massive amount of catch-up lists. We absolutely won’t.
‘It will be around re-diverting resources we’ve got in a different way, making the best decision we can.’
Asked if she was not going to be prepared to pay extra, because the money simply is not there, she said: ‘Absolutely.’
Dr Melissa Ryan, co-chairwoman of the BMA’s UK resident doctors committee, told the PA news agency that rising living costs are forcing many doctors into debt.
She said a first-year doctor with £80,000-100,000 of student debt can expect to lose 9 per cent of their salary for life repaying it.
‘We work long nights and unsociable hours, get flung around the country, and still some of us struggle to pay rent,’ she said.
‘That’s because our pay has been eroded by 21 per cent since 2008 – it’s like working one day a week for free.’
Striking doctors say their demand is simple – restore pay to 2008 levels.
Dr Ryan said: ‘We want to be paid fairly and we want an excuse to stay in the NHS and do what we enjoy, which is looking after patients.’
She asserted that doctors have seen the worst pay erosion across the public sector and said: ‘Doctors should not need to subsidise the NHS with their wages.’
Dr Ryan apologised to patients for the disruption caused by the strike, saying: ‘It really is disruptive – and I’m sorry for that.’
But she added: ‘I apologise to patients every day because the NHS isn’t giving them the service they deserve.’
‘We’re under-doctored and understaffed. And that’s a political choice not to fund this properly.
‘We need a government that will invest in the NHS, not only for me, but also for the patients.’
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, told the PA news agency health staff will be working ‘flat out’ to see as many patients as they can during the strike, after NHS England made clear it wants as much pre-planned care as possible to continue.
He said: ‘Striking doctors should think carefully if they are really doing the right thing for patients, for the NHS and for themselves…
‘The strike will throttle hard-won progress to cut waiting lists, but NHS trust leaders and staff will be working flat out to see that as many patients as possible get the care they need.’
It is understood that NHS chief Sir Jim Mackey had told trust leaders to try to crack down on resident doctors’ ability to work locum shifts during the strike and earn money that way.
Leaders have also been encouraged to seek ‘derogations’, where resident doctors are required to work during the strikes, in more circumstances, the Health Service Journal (HSJ) reported.
Rory Deighton, acute and community care director at the NHS Confederation, said: ‘These strikes were not inevitable – the Government entered negotiations with the BMA in good faith…
‘The impact of these strikes and the distress they will cause patients rests with the BMA.’
The BMA has argued that real-terms pay has plunged by around 20 per cent since 2008, and is pushing for full ‘pay restoration’.
The union is taking out national newspaper adverts today, saying it wants to ‘lay bare the significant pay difference between a resident doctor and their non-medically qualified assistants’.
It said the adverts ‘make clear that while a newly qualified doctor’s assistant is taking home over £24 per hour, a newly qualified doctor with years of medical school experience is on just £18.62 per hour’.
RDC co-chairs Dr Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said in a statement: ‘Pay erosion has now got to the point where a doctor’s assistant can be paid up to 30 per cent more than a resident doctor.
‘That’s going to strike most of the public that use the NHS as deeply unfair.
‘Resident doctors are not worth less than they were 17 years ago, but unfortunately, they’ve seen their pay erode by more than 21 per cent in the last two decades.
‘We’re not working 21 per cent less hard, so why should our pay suffer?
‘We’re asking for an extra £4 per hour to restore our pay. It’s a small price to pay for those who may hold your life in their hands.’
The statement said Mr Streeting had had every opportunity to prevent the strike, but added: ‘We want these strikes to be the last we ever have to participate in.
‘We are asking Mr Streeting to get back around the table with a serious proposal as soon as possible – this time with the intent to bring this to a just conclusion.’
Resident doctors are qualified doctors in clinical training.
They have completed a medical degree and can have up to nine years of working experience as a hospital doctor, depending on their speciality, or up to five years of working and accumulating experience to become a GP.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the framing of the BMA advertising campaign was ‘disingenuous’.
‘Given their repeated use of debunked ways of measuring inflation to overstate their pay claims, it follows a pattern of deliberately misleading calculations from the BMA,’ a spokesperson said.
‘The average annual earnings per first-year resident doctor last year was £43,275. That is significantly more, in a resident doctor’s first year, than the average full-time worker in this country earns.
‘Resident doctors in their second year earned an average of £52,300 last year and at the top end of the scale, resident doctors in speciality training earned an average of almost £75,000 – this is set to increase further with this year’s pay award.’
The Conservatives blamed Labour for having ‘opened the door’ to fresh strikes with a ‘spineless surrender to union demands last year’.
Shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew said: ‘They handed out inflation-busting pay rises without reform, and now the BMA are back for more.
‘They are disrupting care, ignoring patients and gambling with lives. This is a betrayal of the NHS and those who rely on it. The public deserves hospitals where the doctors are on the frontline rather than the picket line.
‘But every day Labour refuses to stand up to union overreach, Britain moves closer to a health service run on the unions’ terms rather than the patients.’
So, it seems that junior doctors are putting their pay demands before sick patients and babies. Doctors are there to save lives; if they don’t like the pay, they should have thought about another career.
Understandably, junior doctors work long hours under stressful situations, but they also need to realise that, like any job, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up, and they act like they are God, but what’s the difference between God and a doctor? God knows he is God; doctors simply think they are.
They got a remarkable pay rise last year, and it was only right as their pay had been frozen for far too long, but now they’re asking for almost the same again, and that is just greedy.
The NHS is on its knees financially, and this puts patient care at risk.
If they want more money, then work elsewhere and get paid more; everyone else in the industry has to do that if they want more money.
The NHS will never be saved while doctors are on strike, and services will be mutilated – patients will die due to this!
At the end of the day, it’s quite straightforward: doctors who want a pay rise and are striking are using their patients as hostages to fulfil their demands, and a lot of patients will die because of this. Isn’t this a form of genocide?
Any doctor who neglects their patients to go on strike should be liable to legal action in the event of death or serious complications.
These junior doctors who were once students before they started training must have known that the wages they would be on would be low, and once upon a time they would have been fine with that because being a doctor or a nurse was a calling because you wanted to make patients better, it’s what they got up for, but now we have the woke brigade training, and they believe that they are above anybody else, especially somebody who is sick or dying.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 