Junior doctor strikes: 'We have no choice but to strike' says junior doctor on picket line at QMC

Junior doctors from around the East Midlands came out on strike today as part of coordinated national action in a long-running dispute with the government over pay.

Doctors formed a picket outside the main entrance of the Queen’s Medical Centre, the largest hospital in the East Midlands, to highlight what they say are ‘real terms salary cuts amounting to a 26% reduction in pay since 2008’.

It is the eleventh time junior doctors have come out on strike nationally since the current dispute arose 20 months ago. 

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The current action is being taken, the doctors say, because they have been given no credible pay offer since December and because of the government walking away from recent talks.

Representatives from the doctors union the British Medical Association (BMA) were leading the action in Nottingham, as they have been around the country. 

“Prime Minister’s failings”

Dr Tal Ellenbogen, surgical trainee in trauma and orthopaedics at the QMC and deputy chair of the BMA East Midlands Junior Doctors Committee, said that responsibility for the breakdown of talks falls squarely with the Prime Minister.

He said: “We’re 20 months into this dispute and Rishi Sunak has constantly blocked this from being sorted. It’s not a priority for him. It appears the NHS might not be a priority for him.

“Sunak is the person who’s blocked deals from happening, Sunak is the person who’s broken doctors’ trust, and Sunak is the person who can avert these strikes by making that firm public commitment. 

“If he makes that firm public commitment we will call off these strikes and I’ll be back at work this afternoon.”

“No choice but to strike”

Dr Ellenbogen said that doctors and the BMA had been left “absolutely no choice” but to strike, after talks between the union and the government broke down for what he said are political reasons.

“Sadly we’re out here for the 11th round of strike action because Rishi Sunak has personally blocked any deal from happening and he’s instructed his government to abandon talks, abandon the mediated talks we were working on a few weeks ago. 

“It may be that Rishi Sunak has decided that he’d rather use doctors as a scapegoat and the NHS as a political football rather than improving it as a public service and treating patients as the most important people in the room.

“He has given us absolutely no choice.”

Showing solidarity

In the time we were at the site of the picket we heard numerous beeps of car horns from supportive members of the public driving past the hospital. 

Dr Ellenbogen said that the support from the public had been very high, with lots of people coming up to the picket expressing “solidarity”, words of encouragement, and some even bringing food for the doctors.

“Patients are not fooled by this government,” he added. “They know that doctors and patients are on the same side.”

After their picket in Nottingham today, the striking doctors boarded a bus to London to join with colleagues from around the country in demanding action from the government.

Nationally the BMA is urging the government to make a commitment, even with the election now less than a week away, to return to talks and commit to a phased, incremental increase in doctors’ pay over a period of years.

Matching inflation

Dr Melissa Ryan, paediatric trainee at the QMC and a member of the East Midlands Junior Doctors Committee, said that doctors are asking for what amounts to a pay restoration, to match the sharp inflation of recent years, rather than a rise. 

She said: “There’s a sense of frustration that we’re back here again. It’s the fact that we haven’t had a government that’s come down and restored our pay. 

“It’s been 20 months. They’ve spent more money on strikes than would have cost them to settle in the first place. I don’t think we’re asking for anything unreasonable. It actually isn’t a pay rise, it’s just restoring our pay.”

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Dr Ryan said that poor pay meant that many doctors, who are often crippled with debt from their studies and training, are leaving the UK for overseas jobs.

She added that poor working conditions within the NHS are in turn having a negative effect on patient care.

She said: “I hate working when we’re short-staffed, which happens all the time. I can’t give the care I want to give.

“I’m having to apologise for the fact that there’s delays. It’s a frustrating environment.

It’s awful. 

“This is a health system that has been underfunded and we’re on the bones of things. It’s hard to work in an environment where you can’t give the patient care you want to give. 

“It’s very difficult, it’s very stressful.”