\n<\/p>\n
T<\/span>he health secretary, Wes Streeting, is hoping that a \u201cconstructive\u201d meeting with leaders of the British Medical Association last week will avert five days of planned strikes by resident doctors in England. The public, meanwhile, is struggling to muster much sympathy for the cause: recent polling showed approval for resident doctor strikes had halved from 52% a year ago to 26%.<\/p>\n This was also reflected when people got in touch with the Guardian to share their views on the planned industrial action \u2013 among them resident doctors, NHS consultants, other health service staff and other public sector workers.<\/p>\n Because resident doctors were given a 22% salary increase over two years last summer, most respondents to a callout, including many resident doctors, expressed outrage over the BMA\u2019s demands for another 29% pay rise \u2013 spread over several years \u2013 to restore the real-terms value of their pay to what it was in 2008. But there were also responses from resident doctors who fully supported the strike plans.<\/p>\n Fareed Al Qusous, 26, an academic foundation doctor from the south-west of England, said: <\/strong>\u201cNo doctor wants to take strike action: it is a last resort, and it is entirely within the government\u2019s hands to prevent these upcoming strikes. No other professional in any industry is paid less than their assistants, except doctors. We are simply asking for a first-year doctor, who currently earns \u00a317 per hour, to be paid \u00a322.50 per hour.<\/p>\n \u201cWes Streeting has said that pay restoration is a journey. However, when you take inflation [based on the current RPI of 4.4%] into account, this year\u2019s [pay offer] amounts to an 1% increase. [At this rate] it would take about 20 years to recover the 21% pay erosion since 2008.<\/p>\n \u201cI know too many colleagues and friends who have left the NHS for good because they don\u2019t feel valued at all, and if these negotiations are not fruitful, it\u2019s something I\u2019m seriously considering myself.\u201d<\/p>\n I can\u2019t rely on my parents to clear my student debt or help with a deposit<\/p>\n The overall picture of responses suggested that many of those who were planning to strike came from modest socioeconomic backgrounds, were saddled with high student loans and\/or living in expensive parts of the country, usually the south of England.<\/p>\n Hassan, a resident doctor in his 20s from London, said: \u201cMany doctors come from privileged backgrounds and, over the past decade, have quietly accepted the erosion of our pay. But for those of us from working-class or state school backgrounds, the stakes are different. I can\u2019t rely on my parents to clear my student debt or help with a deposit or rent: I\u2019m on my own.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile some colleagues return from shifts to comfortable family-owned homes, others go back to small, poorly furnished flats and wonder how we\u2019ll cover next month\u2019s bills. This is about fairness. I support the strikes wholeheartedly.\u201d<\/p>\n Striking against a government that is finally trying to fix the NHS feels premature and counterproductive<\/p>\n Among the resident doctors opposed to the strikes was a specialty trainee doctor in the north-east of England who spoke anonymously. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s reasonable to strike when we have so recently been given a significant raise. We also have added benefits. We cannot expect to have further raises of similar magnitude so quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n A senior anaesthetics registrar from Bristol <\/strong>said she had participated in previous strikes but would not support this one. \u201cFull pay restoration is a worthy goal. Demanding it too quickly is unrealistic. Crucially, Wes Streeting is engaging constructively, showing willingness to invest and reform. Striking against a government that is finally trying to fix the NHS feels premature and counterproductive.<\/p>\n \u201cMore urgently, our profession faces a deeper crisis: training bottlenecks and unemployed UK medical graduates. We\u2019re heading toward a system with more doctors than jobs, and too few training posts. This is what threatens our future most, yet the BMA\u2019s singular focus on pay is drowning out this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Striking harms patients, and being a doctor is a vocation<\/p>\n Almost all consultants who got in touch opposed the planned strike action, variously saying it was \u201cethically wrong\u201d, \u201cunjustifiable\u201d, \u201cshortsighted\u201d or brought the profession into disrepute.<\/p>\n Among them was Kate Matharu, from Kent, who has been a GP for 25 years. \u201cStriking harms patients, directly and indirectly,\u201d she said. \u201cPatients will have to wait longer for treatment, often in pain. Our job has always been tough and I feel it is a vocation.\u201d<\/p>\n While Matharu had sympathy for junior colleagues burdened with high student loans, she felt people who put their finances first should not be in the profession. \u201cHaving children that have gone to university myself, I can see the debt they\u2019re in. But, my daughter\u2019s studied medicine, and the first thing I said to her is: don\u2019t do it if you want to earn lots of money, if that is your main concern.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n A consultant oncologist from the Midlands, who wanted to stay anonymous, said: \u201cAs cancer doctors, cancelling work just isn\u2019t an option, nor can we delay patients\u2019 treatments. We\u2019ll still have to cover the ward care to keep our most vulnerable patients safe. Last time, some of our resident doctors were striking through the week but accepting lucrative locum shifts at the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n All public sector workers will be affected by these unreasonable demands<\/p>\n Pete Garnham, 58, from North Yorkshire, who has worked in various local authority highways departments since 1991, was among many public sector workers highly critical of the planned strikes. \u201cI feel doctors are being greedy, unreasonable and will lose support from the general public,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a public sector worker I understand what a financial mess this country is in. For this reason I do not expect a massive pay rise to put me back \u2018where I should have been\u2019. Rather, I\u2019m happy to accept a modest, hopefully above-inflation pay rise. Since the end of the brutal eight-year freeze of pay rises at 1% between 2010 and 2018, my pay rises were [between 1.75% and 3.88%] each year. All public sector workers will be affected by these unreasonable demands from doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n Nick Jacobsen, a 54-year-old GP from Cornwall, was understanding of the financial predicament faced by many resident doctors but ambivalent about further industrial action. \u201cI\u2019m really struggling morally with this strike, but [some] resident doctors are really struggling to make ends meet. I was a resident doctor between 2007 and 2012. My tuition fees were paid, I had an NHS bursary that covered half my living costs. I came out with probably about \u00a330,000 in [student and maintenance] loans. On that basis I was happy to be paid whatever I was paid.<\/p>\n It\u2019s really no surprise that they\u2019ve had enough in these conditions <\/p>\n \u201cToday, the job is harder because the NHS is poorly resourced and demands on it are now enormous compared to even 10 years ago. Resident doctors now have enormous amounts of student debt, [often] in excess of \u00a3100,000. There are also other factors, like difficulties getting on the housing ladder and the cost of living. All this creates a discontented workforce. It\u2019s really no surprise that they\u2019ve had enough.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the same time, I think they should look at the bigger picture: they will be on much higher pay than most people after they qualify in their specialties, so perhaps they should just get their heads down and soldier on, it won\u2019t be forever. But what do I really know about it, being a senior doctor on the other side?\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to be in Wes Streeting\u2019s shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n Tom, 33, from Birmingham, said his wife, a resident doctor who had completed her training, would not participate in any strikes because she was planning to leave the NHS. \u201cHer base pay is around \u00a370k now \u2013 and you can get to \u00a385k-\u00a3100k with night shifts and so on. But we\u2019re planning to leave the UK because she has been told that there are no consultant positions available.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are hundreds of fully qualified resident doctors who are not being promoted to consultant. Why would the system promote and pay them more, when it can get the same level of work for a fraction of the cost? All of this strike talk could be ended permanently if the government simply guaranteed that residents would have a job when they complete training.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have to go somewhere else \u2013 Australia, Canada or the US.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The health secretary, Wes Streeting, is hoping that a \u201cconstructive\u201d meeting with leaders of the British Medical Association last week will avert five days of planned strikes by resident doctors in England. The public, meanwhile, is struggling to muster much sympathy for the cause: recent polling showed approval for resident doctor strikes had halved from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[2609,366,3001,5216,85,5215],"class_list":{"0":"post-11736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-class","9":"tag-doctors","10":"tag-resident","11":"tag-stakes","12":"tag-strikes","13":"tag-working"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}