"Enough is enough." That's the message from one Newcastle GP who's leading calls to ensure that junior doctors receive a pay package reflecting how rates have stagnated over the past decade.
Dr Lizzie Toberty is a GP in Jesmond. While a junior doctor she went out on strike in 2016, and said a repeat was a real possibility. This comes after the Government came in for heavy criticism for the pay awards announced for NHS workers in July. Junior doctors are actually excluded from that - as they are on three-year deal - but the British Medical Association (BMA) has called for health bosses to address a 22% decline in real-terms pay for junior doctors compared to 2008-2009.
A week ago, the cross-party Health and Social Care Committee said health and social care services in England face “the greatest workforce crisis in their history” and the Government had no credible strategy to make the situation better. In their report, research by the Nuffield Trust shows the NHS in England is short of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives.
Dr Toberty - a committee member for the Doctors' Association UK organisation - said without "pay restoration" for juniors which would reverse that 22% decline, strike action would follow and many doctors could leave the NHS. She told ChronicleLive : "I'm a GP rather than a junior doctor. But of course I have been a junior doctor and went out on strike in 2016. Here, essentially what has happened over time is pay has remained static over the last ten to 12 years.
"I started as a junior doctor back in 2010, and when I look at what my take-home pay was back then - well some junior doctors are ending up with even less compared to what I got in 2010."
She said that the traumas of working as junior doctors during a pandemic had taken their toll on many. "They've literally been putting their lives at risk. Many junior doctors have started working in the NHS in terrible circumstances. And we need to remember that they are living with worry about having paid a minimum of £45,000 for their degrees. That's not including living costs, some will have graduated with eighty grand plus of debt.
"We need our brightest and best to become doctors in the NHS, but there are plenty of other countries who would love to employ our junior doctors. We have a huge problem as everyone knows when it comes to vacancies. And it's not as simple as we are not training enough people, it's that we are not retaining them - we are not looking after our people properly. You have to pay staff enough to encourage them to stay."
She said that doctors were supportive of other NHS professions considering strike action, and said that doctors were "fighting for the heart of the NHS". Dr Toberty added that there was a risk the health service could turn into a "two-tier system" without action.
"Nobody wants to strike," she said. "Nobody wants to take that action at a time when were are trying to bring waiting lists down. But we need to think about the longer term. I think the BMA have said quite clearly that without pay restoration there's likely to be action."
Like other GPs working in primary care on Tyneside, Dr Toberty said that increasing workload had not been matched by increased funding. In the Government's NHS pay award, it announced salaries GPs should see wages rise 4.5%, but did not increase funding to GP partners to pay for this. The BMA said this was a "kick in the teeth".
Dr Toberty said: "More and more work has been pushed onto primary care but because of the way we are paid it hasn't been matched by an increase in funding. There are lots of people disillusioned in primary care at the moment. People are dropping their hours and retiring early. It's people not feeling valued or appreciated. Enough is enough."
The Department of Health and Social Care has defended its investment in the NHS and social care and its application of the recommendations from the NHS Pay Review Board. A spokesperson said it was growing the health and social care workforce and added: "We have commissioned NHS England to develop a long term workforce plan to recruit and support NHS staff while they deliver high quality, safe care to patients and help to bust the Covid backlogs."
Addressing demands for higher pay rises, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: "This Government hugely values and appreciates the dedication and contribution of NHS staff which is why we will give over one million NHS workers a pay rise of £1,400 this year, on top of the 3% they received last year when pay rises were temporarily paused in the wider public sector.
“We asked the independent pay review bodies for their recommendations and I am pleased to accept them in full.
“We want a fair deal for staff. Very high inflation-driven settlements would have a worse impact on pay packets in the long run than proportionate and balanced increases now, and it is welcome that the pay review bodies agree with this approach."
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