Thousands of junior doctors walk out as 350,000 appointments face cancellation

Junior doctors 'earn just £14.09 per hour'

A new campaign from the BMA says junior doctors starting work in hospitals earn £14.09 per hour in their basic pay packet, a figure which does not include additional payments for weekend or overnight pay.

The union claims junior doctors in England have seen a 26% real-terms pay cut since 2008/09 because pay rises have been below inflation.

It is asking for a full pay restoration that the Government has said would amount to a 35% pay rise - but ministers have said this is unaffordable.

(PA)

Strikes 'important for future of NHS'

Acute care consultant Kevin O'Kane has told doctors gathered at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square today that striking is "important for the future of the NHS".

He said: "None of you want to be here today. You should be back in your hospitals and your general practices looking after patients and furthering your training.

Greggs, Costa & Pret coffees have 'huge differences in caffeine', says report

"I want to thank you today on behalf of the country's consultants.

"Your generation has made it clear that doctors are not going to be trampled down any more.

"They're not going to be subject to moral blackmail from a monopoly employer."

Striking doctors have gathered for a protest today in Trafalgar Square (Getty Images)

Please continue to attend GP and dental appointments, says NHS

NHS England have asked patients to continue attending their GP and dental appointments amid this week's strike action.

Messages were posted on the NHS's official social media accounts earlier today reminding members of the public that their scheduled appointments would be going ahead, unless they are told otherwise.

Thousands of junior doctors began a four-day walkout today, with health bosses warning that disruption at hospitals could last for as much 10 or 11 days.

This week, some services will be affected due to strike action.

Please continue to attend your GP and dental appointments, unless you are contacted and told otherwise. pic.twitter.com/AFmUMo1Rsd

— NHS England (@NHSEngland) April 11, 2023

Junior doctor could 'double' her salary in Australia

A striking junior doctor said she could "double" her salary in Australia.

Picketing outside St Mary's Hospital, the 32-year-old said: "If we went to Australia overnight we could double our salary - I've got friends whose starting salary as a doctor was the equivalent of 90k at a fairly junior level.

Junior doctors hold up placards outside a hospital in London (Humphrey Nemar.)

"Why not just get another job with better pay, working conditions? I know at least five doctors who have quit medicine altogether to work in health consultancy and pharmaceutical companies. That is such a waste of training.

"I love the job of being a doctor but you do ask yourself: why not just get another job with better pay, working conditions?

"There is only so much time you can go against common sense."

Trainee surgeon 'getting distracted while operating due to worry over extra shifts'

A junior doctor said a trainee surgeon he works with was getting distracted while operating as they were worried about taking on extra shifts.

Stuart Innes, 28, said on the picket line at St Thomas' Hospital in London: "If I was going under the knife I'd want them to only be thinking about me and me alone and not have to worry about the fact they have got to pay for gas and electric and they've got their rent coming up."

Junior doctors strike outside St Thomas' Hospital (Humphrey Nemar.)

He added: "Over Christmas and over the winter period, we were getting emails saying our ICU was at capacity. We had no acute admitting beds for medicine left.

"We needed to urgently get people out of hospital because there were people sitting at A&E for hours with just nowhere to go.

"Ambulance were getting stuck. They were unable to offload their patients and that's persisted outside of winter."

Striking doctor says conditions are so bad he has to sit on a bin to work

An NHS doctor working at a hospital in London says conditions are so bad that he is forced to sit on a bin to work - and that it's too busy to take a lunch break.

George Dovey, 28, picketed outside St Thomas' Hospital this morning as he joined around 50,000 junior doctors striking across England.

The medic said he is working harder than ever to make sure patients are not left in the corridors at the hospital.

He continued: "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."

Read more here.

No10 says it will only negotiate if junior doctors 'abandon 35% pay rise and call off strikes'

Downing Street insisted there would be no talks with the British Medical Association unless junior doctors abandoned their starting position of a 35% rise and called off the strikes.

A No 10 spokesman said Rishi Sunak was being kept up to date about the impact of the industrial action.

Junior doctors stand at a picket line outside University College Hospital (Getty Images)

"It continues to be the case that we call on the BMA junior doctors to cease their strikes and revise their starting point for negotiations, which is 35%, which we continue to believe is unreasonable and is not affordable for the British taxpayer," the spokesman said.

They said the 35% demand was "completely out of step with pay settlements in other parts of the public sector" and would cost £2 billion.

The spokesman added: "We know that the strike action will have an impact on patient care. The last set of strikes saw around 180,000 operations cancelled and that was a three-day strike, so we'd expect to see higher numbers this week."

Patient has been waiting a year for surgery - but still supports junior doctors

Ian Gornall, from Lancaster, has been waiting for around a year to have an operation on his leg.

Despite this, he says he still supports the junior doctors' strikes.

Junior doctors begin their four-day strike action over pay (Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)

He told the Mirror: "They work longer hours than most people, plus they're under pressure to save people's lives."

Mr Gornall also spoke about the abuse faced by NHS staff, which hospital chiefs previously warned had reached "dangerous" levels.

He added: "With all this for poor money, I wouldn't do it."

Junior doctor says he suffers panic attacks and is 'completely exhausted'

Growing number of junior doctors 'are leaving NHS to work in Australia'

Junior doctors at the start of their four-day walkout have described how a growing number of colleagues are leaving the NHS to work in Australia.

Seeking better pay and working conditions, many junior doctors are heading to the southern hemisphere.

Outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London anaesthetist trainee Ada Zenbrzyzka, 27, who works at Whipps Cross Hospital, told the Mirror: “We’ve had a 26% pay cut since 2008.

“We’re not doing a quarter less work than our colleagues in 2008. In fact we’re probably doing more - seeing more patients, more unwell patients. We just want our pay to be restored to what it was.

Junior doctors demonstrate outside St Thomas' Hospital in London (Humphrey Nemar.)

“The wellbeing of Junior doctors is not great. Pay and working conditions are really big factors that influence that. We’re seeing more colleagues leave to go to Australia and New Zealand where pay and conditions are much better.

“Most junior doctors have £80,000 - £100,000 of debt after five and six year medical degrees, then they’re being paid £14 per hour.

"The same people are prescribing life-saving medicines and re-starting peoples’ hearts. It makes you feel really undervalued."

George Dovey, 28, a junior doctor at St Thomas’ was holding a sign reading “maybe I should care 26% less”.

He said: “The working conditions are getting worse. The equipment to do the job properly is not there.

“There’s always been this expectation for NHS workers to just crack on with it. After five years of doing it, and after Covid, we’ve had enough."

BMA industrial relations officer Daniel Pebody joined the strikers at St Thomas’ Hospital.

He said: "Do people expect junior doctors to have their pay eroded for the rest of their lives? They’ve been forced to do this.

"More and more we’re seeing junior doctors go to the likes of Australia, where pay and conditions are much better. They are also paid more in France, for example. The money is there to pay for this, it’s nonsense to say it’s not."

Patient whose cancer check-up was delayed by strikes says he still supports junior doctors

A patient whose cancer check-up was delayed by the strikes has said he still supports junior doctors.

Phil Sutcliffe, a 75-year-old retired journalist from Streatham, London joined a picket at St Thomas' Hospital with his wife, who was a nurse for 40 years.

They held a sign that read: "Today my cancer checkup was delayed by the strike but I support the junior doctors! We must pay them properly and the nurses and everyone who cares for us."

Mr Sutcliffe said he has a form of lymphoma that has returned after being in remission for nearly five years.

The picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital in London (Humphrey Nemar.)

He said he has just started to feel some lumps returning, which he described as "alarming," and due to the strikes, his check-up appointment has been delayed to early May.

"I have a slow-developing form of cancer which has been in remission and is now starting up again, so it's starting to get a bit alarming. But I'm in good hands - despite this little delay," he said.

He added he "entirely understands" that people with much more urgent conditions "feel angry and frightened" with appointment delays.

"But at the same time, these doctors do the most fantastic job for very modest pay, in particular the junior doctors, so the Government needs to get to the negotiating table and start talking," Mr Sutcliffe added.

"The issue of pay for the doctors, for the nurses, for all the health workers is just so crucial it transcends a lot of our individual troubles so I am supporting these guys.

Full list of hospitals where junior doctors are striking in walkout

Doctors are mounting picket lines outside hospitals from 7am today until Saturday morning in the longest stoppage of the wave of unrest, which has seen other NHS workers take action since last year.

The BMA has released a full list of picket lines, confirmed as of April 6.

Junior doctors striking outside Salford Royal Hospital (Manchester Evening News)

It covers hospitals across London, East of England, South East, South Central, South West, West Midlands, East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber, North West and North East.

Find out here whether junior doctors are going on strike at a hospital near you.

Patient supports strike - despite delay to surgery

An NHS patient says he supports the strikes - despite an operation to remove a pre-cancerous tumour in his small intestine being delayed.

“I’m 100% supportive” of the strikes, said David Bell, 47, from Chelmsford.

He described the delay as “frustrating”, telling BBC News that it left him with "fears”.

But he continued: “My view is that treating the junior doctors and the NHS fairly is a win-win for patients as well, because I want anyone involved in my care to feel valued.”

Trainee doctors 'using food banks' as they struggle to stay above breadline

A trainee anaesthetist said her colleagues are using food banks as they struggle to stay above the breadline.

Ada Zembrzycka, 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."

Junior doctors striking outside the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (SWNS)

Speaking on the picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, the 27-year-old added: "Junior doctors have received a 26% pay cut over the last 15 years yet we are not worth a quarter less than our colleagues were in 2008.

"Over seven million patients are on the NHS waiting list - to put that in perspective that's more than the population of Scotland."

Dr Zembrzycka, who earns £19 a hour, added: "I do have colleagues who have to borrow money from their families to pay rent this year."

Doctors on strike outside St Thomas' have been cheered on by cyclists and motorists as they begin four days of industrial action.

NHS trusts urge Government and BMA to 'get on' with pay talks

The NHS Confederation, which represents NHS trusts, urged the Government and the British Medical Association to "get on" with negotiations.

"At the moment it feels as though the BMA and the Government are repeating their starting positions - well, that is your starting position, now get into negotiation," the organisation's chief executive, Matthew Taylor, told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

Junior doctors in Liverpool begin their four-day strike action over pay (Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)

"We did the same as this with the nurses, with the ambulance workers - we had months where the Government wouldn't negotiate, and then, when the talk started relatively quickly, they got to a deal that's now being recommended to their workers.

"So both sides are going to end up negotiating - we all know that - so I guess we want to say 'Please get on with it'."

'Absolutely nothing' from Steve Barclay regarding pay negotiations, says BMA

Junior doctors have had "absolutely nothing" from the Health Secretary regarding pay negotiations, the deputy chairwoman of the BMA Council said.

Dr Emma Runswick told BBC Breakfast: "We're not the side with the power here to start negotiations - we've been asking for literally months.

"At any point, Steve Barclay could have entered negotiations with us. When we met after the last round of industrial action he literally walked out of the room having put nothing on the table.

NHS staff demonstrate outside Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool (Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)

"None of us want to be on strike here... we're looking for the Government to move but we will continue, our mandate is incredibly strong."

Previously, the Health Secretary said: "It is extremely disappointing the BMA has called strike action for four consecutive days.

"Not only will the walkouts risk patient safety, but they have also been timed to maximise disruption after the Easter break.

"I hoped to begin formal pay negotiations with the BMA last month but its demand for a 35% pay rise is unreasonable - it would result in some junior doctors receiving a pay rise of over £20,000.

"If the BMA is willing to move significantly from this position and cancel strikes we can resume confidential talks and find a way forward, as we have done with other unions."

Strikes are 'longest period of industrial action ever seen in NHS'

This week's junior doctor strikes mark "the longest period of industrial action ever seen in the NHS", according to a senior NHS doctor.

Dr Vin Diwakar, the NHS England medical director for national transformation, told BBC Breakfast: "This is half the doctors in the country.

"A junior doctor is a term that covers everybody from those that have just graduated to those with up to eight, nine years of experience."

Junior doctors hold up placards outside Leicester Royal Infirmary (PA)

Dr Diwakar said the main impact of the 96-hour walkout will fall on hospitals.

"Our main priority is to focus and prioritise emergency services, particularly accident and emergency departments, intensive care, maternity services and so on," he said.

"If you believe that you have a life-threatening illness, you must ring 999, the ambulance service is working as normal and we have prioritised emergencies."

Junior doctors spotted on picket lines in London and Leicester

Junior doctors have kicked off the 92-hour strike by joining picket lines in London and Leciester.

Pictures show medics - and a child - holding up placards reading "doctors deserve better", "pay restoration for doctors" and "£14/hour is not a fair wage for a junior doctor".

They were seen outside UCH Hospital and Leciester Royal Infimary.

A child joins NHS striking junior doctors in Leicester (PA)

Junior doctors could keep striking 'until the next general election'

Junior doctors could ramp up their industrial action and carry on striking "until the next general election".

A senior BMA source told The Guardian: "If there’s no movement, we’re looking at months and months of action. This could go all the way through to the next general election."

Striking NHS junior doctors on the picket line outside Leicester Royal Infirmary (PA)

Another insider said: "Escalation could be on the cards.

"There is enough motivation and resources for junior doctors to keep going for another year.”

Their comments come as NHS managers say that patient care is "on a knife edge" because of the strike.

Doctor on the picket line explains why he's going on strike

An anaesthetic doctor on the picket line has explained why he is going on strike today.

Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of the BMA junior doctors' committee, also said that the 35% pay rise being asked for is "not a tall ask".

He told BBC Breakfast: "This uplift that we're asking for is only to reverse the pay cuts that we've had.

Picket line at UCH hospital in London today (Jeremy Selwyn)

"Doctors have had more than 26% real terms pay cut over the last 15 years.

"In monetary value, all we're asking is for a doctor who's paid £14 an hour to be paid £19 an hour. So it's not a tall ask.

"And like we've said before, we will need to negotiate on how we get there, but for that to happen we need Mr Barclay to negotiate with us."

NHS boss warns services 'will be stretched' during strikes

National medical director of NHS England Professor Sir Stephen Powis warned services "will be stretched", adding the junior doctor strikes "will cause significant disruption".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are going to see four days of industrial action by junior doctors, that's the longest period of strikes we've had this winter and... it will cause significiant disruption.

Sir Stephen Powis, medical director of NHS England (Getty Images)

"We've been working hard with local hospitals, with local health systems to ensure that predominantly consultants, but also other staff are there to put in place the cover that is required in emergency services in particular.

"So that's A&E departments, critical care, maternity services, but those services will be stretched.

"If you do have a life-threatening emergency it's important you still call 999, still access A&E, but for any other condition then think carefully: use our services wisely.

"There are other routes to take such as general practice, which will be affected but much less so, local pharmacy and of course 111 and 111 online should always be the first port of call for advice."

Number of cancelled appointments 'likely to rise by another 100,000'

The number of cancelled appointments - previously suggested to be 250,000 - is likely to rise by another 100,000, according to NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor.

NHS England said staff will be asked to prioritise emergency and urgent care over some routine appointments and procedures to ensure safe care for those in life-threatening situations.

NHS England said staff will be asked to prioritise emergency and urgent care (Getty Images)

The health body said appointments and operations will only be cancelled "where unavoidable" and patients will be offered alternative dates as soon as possible.

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: "People should attend appointments unless told otherwise by the NHS, continue to call 999 in a life-threatening emergency and use NHS 111 online services for non-urgent health needs."

Three junior doctors 'would make just £66.55 for taking out your appendix'

Three junior doctors would make just £66.55 between them for taking out your appendix, the British Medical Association (BMA) has said.

The BMA has highlighted the low pay as part of a new advertising campaign in support of the pay dispute by junior doctors in England.

Three doctors with 10, seven and one year of experience would make just £28, £24.46, and £14.09 respectively by performing the potentially life-saving procedure, the trade union for doctors said in a press release.

Dr Jennifer Barclay, a surgical doctor in the North West, said: "There is nothing 'junior' about the work I have done as a doctor.

Junior doctors at a rally in Newcastle upon Tyne (Craig Connor/ChronicleLive)

"I'll be trying to focus on steady, controlled hand movements, thinking about the next steps and communicating with the rest of the team.

"Meanwhile, my bleep is going off incessantly in the background with more and more patients waiting to be seen as soon as I get out of theatre. For that hour of work that might save a life I can be paid £19."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "This campaign is misleading as it does not take account of the additional earning capacity and pay progression available to junior doctors.

"The most experienced junior doctors now have a higher pay band - meaning they received a cumulative increase of 24% over four years.

"We've also increased rates of pay for night shifts and created a permanent £1,000 allowance a year for junior doctors who work less than full time, on top of their usual pay."

Walkout begins

Good morning and welcome to our live rolling coverage of the junior doctors strike across England, which begins at 7am today.

This is the second time juniors doctors have gone on strike in less than four weeks, after the government and the British Medical Association failed to reach an agreement.

We’ll be bringing you the latest updates throughout the day - stay with us!

Junior doctors striking outside Leicester Royal Infirmary today (PA)