'We've given our youth to medicine' - junior doctors strike in England over pay

The British Medical Association (BMA) says England's shortage of doctors will worsen if the government fails to offer them a credible pay rise, as thousands of young medics continued their strike action on Thursday.

Around 60,000 junior doctors across the country began their walk out at 07:00 GMT on Wednesday. They are seeking a 35 percent pay increase - last year they received an average pay increase of 9 percent, but the BMA, the body that represents them, says that isn't enough.

Dr Robert Laurenson, one of the co-chairs of the junior doctor's committee, explained that doctors have effectively suffered a wage cut as a result of more than a decade of insufficient pay increases, that have failed to keep up with inflation.

He told CGTN Europe: "Over the past 15 years, junior doctors have faced a 26 percent real terms pay cut and doctors start on about £15 per hour. That's on the back of four to six years of education and about £100,000 of debt. We're asking for doctors to start on £21 per hour."

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Research carried out by the BMA shows that, in comparison to other nations, England has a very low proportion of doctors relative to the population. The average number of doctors per 1,000 people in OECD EU nations is 3.7, but England has just 2.9. Germany, by comparison, has 4.3.

England needs nearly 50,000 additional full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors to put the country on an equivalent standard with today's OECD EU average of 3.7 doctors per 1,000 people. An uneven regional distribution of doctors is also an issue. Not a single region in the country meets the OECD EU nation average.

Excluding London, regions of the country with a large population also do not have a proportionate number of doctors: 3.5 million more people live in the Midlands than the North West, but they have 4,000 fewer doctors to treat them.

Laurenson says this supply and demand crisis will only worsen. "I think we need to recognize that there's actually significant risk to patients all year round," he added. "We have significant waiting times not just for elective care, but in A&E last year before strike action, we saw patients waiting 24 hours in A&E departments. 

"The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said that in 2022 there were 500 excess deaths a week. That's like two planes crashing every week. That's not safe. And the fact of the matter is that we have a supply and demand issue. Demand for healthcare is very high. We don't have enough doctors. And the government's solution to that is apparently to cut our pay and drive us away."

Scores of doctors rallied outside Guy's St Thomas hospital on Thursday. Many admitted that the prospect of better pay and working hours abroad is making them consider their future in the NHS. Others said the cost of living crisis has made it even more difficult to survive in London on a junior doctor's wage.

"It is quite tough," says Banjur, who plans on becoming a junior paediatrician. "While living in London, seeing all the expenses rise, everything we get we have to spend. We can't save anything. We can't send money back home. So it's quite difficult for us."

"Sometimes I think, why we have put in all of those years? We have given our youth to this, this medicine, and we are getting nothing for this. I've heard many of my colleagues, they are fed up with the NHS because of the pay and everything and they are planning on moving to Australia."

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