A junior doctor saves lives every day in a Scots hospital but he cannot even afford to rent a home of his own.
And even though he can work in excess of 60 hours a week Hugh Pearson has to take on extra locum shifts to pay for expensive compulsory courses and exams to progress in his career.
Mortgages and cars are just a dream and money is so tight he cannot even afford to take driving lessons. Today junior doctor members of doctors’ union, the BMA, will begin to vote in a ballot for strike action.
The doctors are demanding restoration of their pay to 2008 levels claiming there has been a real terms pay cut of 23.5 per cent since then. They are calling for an above inflation pay rise this year and a guarantee full restoration will be forthcoming within five years.
Dr Pearson, 26, is currently working as a second year foundation doctor in colorectal surgery at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh. He hopes to specialise in head and neck reconstructive surgery but to have even a chance of following this path he has to take a clutch of expensive courses and sit post graduate exams - and that is just to be considered for core training.
The courses cost around £600 and exams can cost up to £1,000. And before he has any hope of becoming a consultant Pearson’s path will be filled with further courses and exams, including self funding a PhD.
But in just his second year since qualifying Hugh has no money left at the end of the month to pay for them so he undertakes extra locum work on top of his working week. And this is in addition to the extra hours doing research, audit work, applications, working on leadership roles, studying for exams, taking courses and taking extra cases in theatre in his own time.
He said: “In other professions you are paid to go on courses like that. If you work in accountancy for example they pay for you to take exams.
“We should want doctors to take post grad exams to be able to complete courses to become surgeons and consultants. It is in all our interests for them to take those courses and exams. We shouldn’t be lumping doctors with a £600 bill on top of their existing living costs.”
Some of Pearson’s work in the last two years has been in Fife so he had to add an extra two hours on to his working day to get there by public transport as he doesn’t drive. Pearson said: “I had planned on learning to drive in Edinburgh but lessons cost £80 for two hours and that is a huge amount of money and more than I can afford at the moment.”
It joins a long list of things the young doctor can’t afford - a home being top of the list.
He said: “I share a rented flat with another doctor, I couldn’t afford the rent on my own. I can’t afford a mortgage; I can’t get the money together for a deposit.
“I fund myself completely and it is difficult to fund basic things, especially when you start out. When I first came to Edinburgh I was really struggling because I had just paid huge amounts of money for university.
"I had more than £80,000 of student debt and I was significantly into my overdraft when I started work.
“I looked at my student loan the other day. My debt is something like £80,000. In two years of working I had paid off about £2,100 of that and accrued £2,600 worth of interest so it is just continuing to grow.
“You see your peers with similar qualifications in other fields being able to buy houses, buy cars while you are just keeping afloat.”
He knows many others like him who have taken on locum work to balance the books and knows several who do tutoring on the side.
He said: “If you do private tutoring you can get upwards of £60 an hour with the qualifications we have but doing it alongside full-time work as a doctor is not really sustainable.”
But the rewards are fare greater than their NHS salaries where some earn as little as £14 an hour - the same as some baristas. Pearson said: “It is outrageous. People imagine doctors are on a lot more. You are constantly having to apologise for the state of your life.
“It is very frustrating and no surprise that people are continuing to leave because of the amount of work and responsibility. Emotionally and legally and in terms of its complexity, it is not worth £14 an hour.
“You are a very highly trained, specialised person who graduates after six yeas of training and is given a huge responsibility from day one, particularly out of hours.
“What is frustrating is the pay doesn’t match the job and it hasn’t for some time. We are devaluing out profession and underfunding the key assets to the NHS - the workers.
“The reality is they pay an awful lot more in other countries. People are leaving as a result. You can’t blame them.
“A lot of graduates can earn much higher salaries in Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada and they will go. The working conditions are much better, the hours are better and you are paid a much higher salary for the hours you work.
“People see the NHS here is in a pretty sorry state. It is very difficult working here and I think it takes a lot of strength for people continue to work in it. It is really pretty bad.
“I have certainly considered going and am continuing to consider it. You would be foolish not to.
“If you want to retain highly skilled doctors you have to pay them what they were paid a few years ago. We are losing a quarter of the pay and that isn’t sustainable.
“We do need people to be doctors, we do want people to be doctors and we don’t want doctors just to be people with huge amounts of inherited wealth. Having a diverse workforce is best for patient care, we should have the cleverest people becoming doctors not just those with money.”
Pearson added: “The doctors I know are incredibly dedicated hardworking people who give up the best years of their life to help people in sub-optimal circumstances just off the back of an unprecedented pandemic, working in a really crumbling health service.
“On top of that we have our pay cut by so much and told we should just accept that which I think is disgraceful.”
Dr Chris Smith, chair of the BMA’s Scottish Junior Doctors Committee urged the new Health Secretary to make junior doctors’ pay to be their number one priority if they they want to avoid disruptive strike action.
And he warned it was “almost certainly coming if they continue their current approach”.
Smith continued: “Today our ballot for junior doctor strike action opens.
“Over recent months we have tried, repeatedly, to encourage the Scottish Government to engage with us in meaningful and formal negotiations over full pay restoration and they have repeatedly refused to commit to this.
“I know junior doctors in Scotland are not only exhausted and on their knees but are increasingly angry and frustrated – I share those sentiments. This ballot gives us the chance to finally have our voice heard loud and clear.
“Enough is enough – junior doctors in Scotland are not worth almost a quarter less than our 2008 counterparts. We have seen our pay drop by 23.5 per cent in real-terms over that time but we certainly do not do 23.5 per cent less work.
“This historical injustice must be corrected and our pay restored.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said junior doctors are vital to NHS Scotland and that Humza Yousaf as Health Secretary offered to meet with the BMA to discuss their concerns around pay and that arrangements will be made for this to take place.
They said: “We’ve been clear their demands for an above retail price index pay increase, plus an additional ask of 23.5 per cent – meaning a pay raise of more than 35 per cent - are simply unaffordable.”
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