A junior doctor said she is striking as a last resort before her career forces her to move abroad after being left feeling “completely gutted” by the state of the NHS.
A five-day strike, starting on Thursday, will see junior doctors from the British Medical Association (BMA) in England walk out for the 11th time as the bitter dispute with the Government over pay rumbles on.
Dr Sumi Manirajan, who graduated from university in 2021 and is now deputy chair of the BMA, explained how junior doctors have seen real wages cut by 26 per cent since 2008 following 15 years of below-inflation rises.
“Junior doctors are now leaving to go to Australia and New Zealand, and those who haven’t are talking about how they can leave,” Dr Manirajan told i.
“I definitely have considered moving [to Australia]. During my first year of practising, there was this moment of clarity where I thought: ‘Things do not have to be how they are.’
“I could be able to work for less hours, for more pay and I would feel valued in the job I would be doing… There are often adverts with QR codes on how to move to Australia.”
Junior doctors are asking for a 35 per cent pay rise immediately after the election, which both the Labour and Conservative parties have ruled out, although Wes Streeting, the shadow Health Secretary, has said he is “willing to sit down and negotiate”.
The walkout will last from 7am on 27 June until 7am on 2 July, two days before the general election.
Half of the medical workforce is made up of junior doctors and their last walkout in February led to 91,048 appointments, procedures and operations being cancelled.
Some NHS leaders have said the service is expecting “major disruption” as a result of the strikes coinciding with this week’s heatwave and the UK Health Security Agency issuing yellow heat health alerts for many parts of the country.
NHS bosses have said the warmer temperatures have already put strain on the service while concerns around a cyber attack at major London hospitals remain, with Guys’ and St Thomas’ and King’s still running at reduced capacity after the incident earlier this month.
NHS England’s national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “This new round of strike action will again hit the NHS very hard, with almost all routine care likely to be affected, and services put under significant pressure.
“While the warmer weather can lead to additional pressure on services at a time when demand for services is already high.
“As ever, we are working to ensure urgent and emergency care is prioritised for patients, but there is no doubt that it becomes harder each time to bring routine services back on track following strikes, and the cumulative effect for patients, staff and the NHS as a whole is enormous.”
Responding to the concerns, Dr Manirajan said junior doctors were reluctant to strike, having entered a “caring profession where we want to care for people’s lives”, stressing how those on strike wanted higher pay to avoid an exodus of medics from the UK.
She added: “We take on a huge amount of risk as doctors and we do not have enough manpower to give patients what they need… and so burnout and mental health is suffering in the NHS.”
Soon after graduating, Dr Manirajan described how she was the “first port of call” for a patient waiting 12 hours in A&E with chest pains, “one of the symptoms of a heart attack”. “I thought to myself: ‘If that was my elderly relative I would be completely gutted that this is what our health service is providing.'”
The BMA, when asked to respond to the impact of the doctors’ strike, said: “To prevent dangerous delays to cancer care, we are granting a derogation for surgical registrars working on high-risk upper GI, head and neck, and lung cancers at three hospital trusts: Lewisham and Greenwich, Guys & St Thomas’ and Kings College Hospital.
“This will help patients who have experienced dangerous delays to their care due to the difficulties of mitigation against the unplanned and malicious cyber-attack. We thank NHS England for raising their concerns with us in the interest of patient safety.
BMA chairman Professor Philip Banfield claimed “more experienced doctors” would help cover for junior doctors, adding: “You’ve got our SAS colleagues, consultants, so it is a more senior workforce in place, those gaps are not quite what you would expect.
“People should continue to use 999 in life-threatening emergencies and NHS 111 – on the NHS app, online, or by phone – for other health concerns,” he added.
In any case, Dr Manirajan insisted the fate of the strikes was in the hands of the prime minister, even if he was out on the campaign trail. “Sunak can make a public commitment that is acceptable to junior doctors and can call the strike off and that will set the blueprint that other parties can follow [if the Conservatives are not re-elected].”
A fresh round of talks between junior doctors and the Government began this month before Rishi Sunak called a general election for 4 July.
