Striking doctors tell of ‘poor pay' and difficult working conditions

North Wales Chronicle

3 days ago

Resident doctor Kelly Johnson said Health Secretary Wes Streeting's opposition to the strikes felt like 'a slap in the face'.
Speaking outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, 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.
'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.'
Around 30 doctors and supporters gathered outside Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) on Friday morning, waving placards and cheering as passing cars beeped horns in support.
Cristina Costache, who is a paediatrics registrar at 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.
'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. That's not safe and that's not okay.
'The reason 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 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.'
Dave Bell, a retired nurse and member of the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, stood in solidarity with striking doctors outside St Thomas' Hospital.
'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 is crucial, adding: 'In the long run, people have got to work together – the unions too. It can be overcome.'
Some patients at St Thomas' Hospital voiced their support for the 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 (Prime Minister Sir) Keir Starmer and his cronies.'
Mohammed Dinee, 42, from Brixton, also backed 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.'
Speaking outside the Bristol Royal Infirmary, Dr Fareed Al-Qusous, 26, a year three academic foundation doctor, said resident doctors had 'the most severe pay erosion compared to all the other sectors'.
'The private sector's pay has caught up with 2008 levels, the finance sector has gone up by 4%, whereas doctors' pay has gone down by 21%,' he said.
'We want to be realistic about things, we want to be pragmatic, we don't want it all in one year, we don't want it over two years.
'We want a multi-year pay deal, a guarantee that pay will be restored.'