Junior doctors across West Midlands start three-day strike
They're walking out over pay and working conditions.
Last updated 13th Mar 2023
Junior doctors in the West Midlands are joining colleagues across the country as a three-day strike begins.
Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) in England will join picket lines outside hospitals across the region in the longest ever period of strikes by junior doctors.
The BMA said newly qualified medics earn £14.09 an hour, less than a barista in a coffee shop, adding that junior doctors in England will have suffered a 26% real-terms cut to their pay since 2008/09.
Dr Becky Bates, a first-year junior doctor in the Midlands, said: "I thought by being a doctor I would be able to achieve financial independence, but instead I am still completely dependent on others.
"With tuition fee loans, credit cards and personal loans, I've left medical school with over £100,000 debt, and now my wages are not even enough to allow me to fix my car when something goes wrong.
"I come from a single-parent family. I don't come from money, yet at 28 I am relying on my mother taking out credit card debt so I can meet these expenses. It's humiliating for me and it's not fair on her.
"As a junior doctor, I can be responsible for more than 400 patients overnight - assessing them, prescribing medication, having really difficult conversations with families about end-of-life care, and I am the first port of call should something go terribly wrong. Yet our skills and responsibilities are completely devalued.
"My situation is far from unique, and this is why me and the overwhelming majority of my colleagues have been forced to take to the picket line this week."
Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs, said: "Is it any surprise that junior doctors are looking for jobs abroad or in other fields when the Government is telling them they are worth more than a quarter less than they were in 2008?
"Losing such valuable clinicians to other countries and professions when waiting lists are at record highs means patients will suffer even more than they are already."
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: "It is incredibly disappointing the British Medical Association (BMA) has declined my offer to enter formal pay negotiations on the condition strikes are paused.
"I hugely value the hard work of junior doctors and urge unions to come to the negotiating table and cancel strikes which risk patient safety and impact efforts to tackle the backlog. I want to find a fair settlement which recognises the crucial role of junior doctors and the wider economic pressures facing the UK.
"I've been having constructive and meaningful talks with unions representing nurses, ambulance workers and other non-medical staff, which have agreed to pause strike action, and negotiations will continue this week.
"We have been working closely with NHS England on contingency plans to help protect patient safety during strikes, prioritising emergency, urgent and critical care - but there will inevitably be some disruption for patients."
NHS leaders have said they are very worried that the walkout by junior doctors will take disruption caused by recent strikes to the next level, posing a risk to patient safety and setting back work to bear down on care backlogs.
Talks between the Government and other health unions will continue this week, holding out hope of a breakthrough in the long-running NHS pay dispute.