Junior doctors' strike: NHS staff on picket line forced to use food banks, borrow rent money amid pay dispute

Doctors working to save patients' lives say some junior staff are being paid as little as £14 an hour, leaving them "living on the breadline".

An estimated 47,600 junior doctors across England began a four-day strike today (11 April), part of a worsening dispute over pay. It threatens to cause huge disruption to the NHS, with an estimated 350,000 appointments cancelled.

The strikes centre around a pay row between the BMA and the government, with the union claiming junior doctors in England have seen a 26% real-terms pay cut since 2008/09 because pay rises have been below inflation. The union has asked for a full pay restoration that the government said would amount to a 35% pay rise – which ministers have said is unaffordable.

Many doctors say with the current cost of living crisis, they have been left living on the breadline. But just how bad is the pay situation for England's doctors?

How bad is the pay situation for junior doctors?

Medics on the picket lines have spoken out about struggling to afford the necessities, while facing difficult working conditions.

Among those striking this morning were junior doctors at The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. One of their number, George, told LondonWorld a pay hike was crucial, if the profession was to retain and continue attracting staff.

“Since 2008, junior doctors have had a 26% pay cut and now we are trying to fight for pay restoration for junior doctors,” he said. “Being a junior doctor is difficult. We have got junior doctors that move abroad because pay and conditions are better there.”

George said he personally knows people who have relocated for improved pay packages, as well as some staff who have decided to leave healthcare altogether. With many junior doctors finishing university with fees upwards of £80,000, George said staff “want to be paid their value”, adding: “Junior doctors are realising their value.”

Trainee anaesthetist Ada Zembrzycka told the PA news agency her colleagues were using food banks as they struggle with the cost of living. The 27-year-old, who works at Whipps Cross Hospital in East London, said: “If the pay cuts continue I will not only struggle to pay (for) my exams but for groceries and my Tube tickets. Rent is increasingly going up and I can’t keep up.”

Speaking on a picket line outside St Thomas’ Hospital in Central London, she said: “I do have colleagues who have to borrow money from their families to pay rent this year.”

Dr George Dovey said he is working harder than ever to make sure patients are not left in the corridors at St Thomas’. The 28-year-old said: “Our working conditions have got harder. I keep getting less resources. I often spend at least 10 minutes a day trying to find a computer that works. I have to do my work while sitting on a bin or desk."

He added: “I am very much just above the breadline. I spent last night looking at jobs in Australia.”

Katrina Forsyth joined a British Medical Association (BMA) picket line after finishing her night shift at St Thomas’. The junior doctor, who works in general surgery, said she has to rely on family and her partner to be able to afford to keep working in London.

The 29-year-old said: “We were clapped during Covid. I qualified early to try and help. [But] When it comes to the point when we are really struggling to pay rent, people don’t care.”

Speaking on the same picket line, Dr Annie Bown, chairwoman of the BMA’s Mersey regional junior doctors committee, said as a junior doctor in her first year of working, she earns just £14 an hour.

“As a junior doctor in my first year of working, when a patient becomes unwell on the wards the nurses will call me, and if that patient’s having difficulty breathing, or if their heart were to stop even, I would attend the ward, try to start their heart again and do all of that for £14 an hour," she said.

“We’re asking for full pay restoration back to the levels it was at previously in 2008/2009. The reason we’re asking for this is because we’re not doing 26.1% less work, we’re not seeing 26.1% less patients – if anything the patients are more complex than ever.”

What has the government's response been so far?

Health Secretary Steve Barclay accused junior doctors of putting patients at “greater risk”, and said the walkouts have “clearly been timed to have an impact on patients”.

“I deeply regret these strikes and in particular the timing, which been timed deliberately coming straight after Easter, the fact that the BMA junior doctors have asked their members not to tell NHS managers whether they intended to go on strike or not – making contingency planning more difficult – and also their refusal to agree on any national exemptions," Barclay said.

“Other health unions like the Royal College of Nursing agreed national exemptions, particularly, for example, for cancer patients so that those patients weren’t impacted... The junior doctors committee has refused any national exemptions and obviously that puts patients at greater risk, but we’re working very hard to mitigate those impacts."

A huge amount of effort had gone into the contingency planning, he said, but the situation was regrettable. Downing Street has called on the BMA junior doctors to cease their strikes, and revise their starting point for negotiations.

“The Government has shown that it is willing to listen and to engage in meaningful and constructive talks," Barclay said. "We are ready to have discussions with them but clearly a demand for 35% – over £20,000 for some junior doctors – is not fair or reasonable.”