'Low pay and deteriorating workforce' brings junior doctors from region out on strike
Junior doctors in the region have made their voices heard about pay and conditions as they joined a national strike.
The doctors from New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton were among tens of thousands across England who have gone on strike over pay in an action led by the British Medical Association (BMA).
The 72-hour walkout, which began on Monday morning, will see operations and appointments cancelled for thousands of patients and add to more than 100,000 appointments which have been postponed this winter through strike action.
The BMA is demanding a substantial pay rise for doctors, with its latest campaign saying junior medics could earn more per hour if they worked in Pret A Manger, and said that junior doctors' pay has fallen 26 per cent since 2008/09.
At New Cross Hospital, there were around 20 doctors and BMA members out on the picket line at the Wolverhampton Road entrance to the hospital.
Despite facing heavy winds and spells of rain, the striking doctors were in good spirits and brightly coloured, wearing orange BMA beanie hats and high visibility jackets and carrying placards with message such as "£14 an hour is not a fair wage for a junior doctor".
They also had support from the public, with plenty of driver of cars and other vehicles sounding their horns in support.
Among those out striking was 26-year-old Joe Davies, a year one core trainee and junior doctor.
He said that while it was a shame that it had come to having to go on strike, he was encouraged by the support of his colleagues and the public and their continued efforts to get a fair deal.
He said: "It means quite a lot to be here and it's good to see so much support from the other junior doctors as it's been a tough two years of me being a junior doctor and I'm sure other people have done it for longer, but it's just great to see people out here fighting for pay restoration.
"None of us want to be doing this from a patient care point of view, but we've seen patient care deteriorate due to the crisis in the workforce and we really need this pay restoration to help us all on the wards and help motivate other people to join the profession.
"To me, a suitable wage would be comparable to 10 years ago when you were able to save for a house and pay off student loans and we've got massive amounts of people who have taken out large amounts of debt and long training years.
"Even at the earliest level of a junior doctor, they've done five years of training minimum, and that's them earning less than certain baristas, so we're not being paid what we're worth now."
Apurva Ashok, a foundation 2 doctor, said she agreed that it was shame that the strike had had to happen, but the 24-year-old said it had had to happen due to not being respected in their profession.
She said: "Like my colleague said, we don't want to be there and we want to be on the wards as it's what we love to do and we want to treat our patients, but we've had to come to this situation after years of not being well paid and not being respected in our profession.
"I would like to see more people coming to strike with us because I don't know if other cities have more people, but today is a starting point and we need to show that we're not going to stop until we get what we want.
"There's a lot of articles that the media publish about we are greedy and how we feel that we deserve more money and they think we've already well paid, but a lot of us go through 10 to 15 years of training and are not well paid until we get to a consultancy level, so what is there is not enough for us."
Speaking outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, junior doctor Shivam Sharma told the Press Association: "Junior doctors have faced a massive 26 per cent real-terms pay cut over the last 15 years.
"We are not worth 26 per cent less, we don't do 26 per cent less work, we don't see 26 per cent less patients. In fact, the work has only gotten harder.
"Currently, 50 per cent of junior doctors are struggling to pay rent, mortgage and bills, and 50 per cent are having to borrow money from friends and family just to make ends meet.
"If you or I were going into hospital critically unwell, we couldn't want our junior doctor to be worrying about how they're going to pay their bills.
"So something has to be done and we have to value doctors here if we are going to keep them."
