Wolverhampton's striking junior doctors rail against 'unsafe' working conditions
"I can't keep going, I'm getting anxious and stressed before going to work – It's the beginnings of burnout."
Those are the words of a junior doctor who joined a picket line at Wolverhampton's New Cross hospital today as part of a national four-day walk-out in the fight for better pay.
The British Medical Association (BMA) wants a 35 per cent pay increase for junior doctors to make up for 15 years of below inflation wage rises – but the Government has called the claim "unrealistic".
Taking part in the fight for better pay were couple Rehana and Luke Ironside, who both live in Sedgley and are junior doctors working at New Cross hospital.
The pair were only able to see each other for 10 minutes at the emergency department cafe on Christmas Day due to their long working hours and conflicting schedules.
Rehana is a paediatric doctor at the hospital, but said she may be forced to reduce her working hours due to the "stress" and "anxiety" caused by her workload.
The 31-year-old added: "I feel like the public are quite upset and angry that we are risking their health - if we don't do something about just how knackered the junior doctors are, we might be able to help you today but we are not going to be able to help you tomorrow.
"It's just constant, I've just come from Birmingham Children's A&E and I'll walk in and there's 10 hour waits so everyone is really angry at you – I'm a person too and I don't want them to wait 10 hours so I carry that stress around that you have.
"I'm currently looking to drop my full-time, I can't keep going, I'm getting anxious and stressed before going to work – It's the beginnings of burnout. I do like this job, it is amazing but I just feel that it is getting busier, more pressured and everyone is getting angry at us but there is nothing we can do."
Health bosses have warned that the industrial action, which will take place until 6.59am on Saturday, will put "immense pressure" on services.
Luke, 31, who is a medical registrar at New Cross hospital, added: "Ye,s the discussion is about money but it's about the other things that go with that, like feeling valued in your job. You can get the same or better wage in other countries now and have a better work-to-life balance.
"Having the staffing levels, the support, and ability to do what we want to do would be fantastic, but that's something we have even less control over than our wage. Often the first couple of minutes of consultations in A&E in particular is apologising for the wait, whereas I think if they came to the door and saw someone quickly, you wouldn't have to do that but that's something we can't have as much of an impact on."
Tayyib Mubashar also joined the picket line in Wolverhampton and said he believes the NHS is "no longer safe" and the service is being "stretched thin".
The 27-year-old, who is in his fourth year as a junior doctor, said: "For the first two years as a doctor I was seeing really amazing care from people that were really stretched thin and then Covid hit, and we were all wiped out - whether that be from morale or people being long-term off sick.
"Since then the amount of gaps that we have seen has now made the NHS unsafe. Here, for the first time in my life I have seen parents having to bring their children in via car, a child who is seizing, because the wait for the ambulance was so long and that child ended up having to be incubated because their oxygen levels were so low – this is the reason why I'm striking because I now believe the NHS is no longer as safe as it once was.
"In 10 years' time, if this wage continues, you are not going to be able to be seen in this hospital so that is what I'm trying to get across to the public. Nobody should have to wait an excessive amount of time to be seen by a doctor, we are trying our best but if you stretch a service so thin, now unfortunately you are starting to get holes in this service and people are starting to fall through those holes."
Health chiefs have stressed that emergency care will be prioritised for people with non life-threatening emergencies being signposted to NHS 111 during the strike period in order to avoid strain on A&E departments.
