Nearly 700 doctors could leave the Welsh NHS on the back of the Welsh Government's 4.5% pay offer, a union has warned. The British Medical Association Cymru carried out a survey in which more than half (52%) of the 1,397 respondents said they are now more likely to walk away from their jobs as a result of the below-inflation pay rise, while 79% said the award has further decreased morale.
In July Health Minister Eluned Morgan agreed the recommendations of the Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body (DDRB) to increase pay by 4.5% for junior doctors, consultants, GPs and dentists employed directly by health boards. But the BMA said the announcement "further demoralised the workforce on which they so heavily rely upon".
In the survey, doctors also warned that the NHS is "close to collapse", with an overwhelming number of respondents admitting they were exhausted and burnt out. Dr Iona Collins, chair of the BMA’s Welsh Council, said the survey findings resonate with what she is hearing from colleagues across Wales.
Read more: What the £1,400 NHS pay rise means for nurses, midwives, cleaners, porters and other staff
She said: "Doctors work in the NHS because they believe in the NHS. Both working conditions and pay, however, keep challenging their decision to remain employed by the NHS. Doctors' take-home pay has reduced over several years, making the NHS an increasingly unattractive employer.
"To make matters worse, doctors are on the receiving end of complex pension tax bills, resulting in some doctors essentially working for free, and others finding out that they have lost money by going to work in the first place. This means that doctors cannot increase their usual working hours resulting in no chance of making significant progress to reduce waiting lists.
"It's not difficult to understand why so many senior doctors are retiring early and younger doctors are moving abroad or finding alternative careers. This situation has got so bad that last year, 52% of NHS consultant physician posts in England and Wales remained vacant.
"We are running out of time. Crisis after crisis in our NHS is making headline news, with the two root causes relating to medical staffing and medical resources. Covid has accelerated a problem which has been evolving for years and there is no point having Covid recovery plans when there is not enough medical staff to deliver the existing services, let alone trying to increase the services available.
"We read so many different reports highlighting the same two problems of not enough staffing and not enough resources. NHS Wales needs to take a good look at how it currently values its medical workforce and reconsider the proposed pay award accordingly. Unreasonable pay will simply drive more doctors out of our NHS, after all, when we’re ill, we’re more likely to be treated by a doctor than a spreadsheet."
Doctors responding to the survey said it is currently "impossible" to provide excellent care due to lack of staff, and patient safety was flagged as a concern by many respondents. One respondent called the situation "terrifying". Others echoed concerns around being undervalued and heavily burdened, feeling that the only option is to reduce their hours, retire early, or move abroad despite this adding to the problem.
BMA Cymru Wales representatives are set to meet with Health Minister Eluned Morgan next month to discuss the immediate need for action. In response to the survey, a Welsh Government spokesperson said: "We have accepted the recommendations of NHS pay review bodies. In announcing our pay award for the NHS workforce in Wales, we made clear that without additional funding from the UK Government, there are limits to how far we can go to address these concerns in Wales. We continue to press the UK Government to provide additional funding necessary for fair pay rises for public sector workers.
"We recognise the hard work of those working within the NHS, and we have seen an increase in the number of staff directly employed by the NHS since March 2021."
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