NHS ‘won’t survive next ten years’ according to striking doctors

The results of the survey from the British Medical Association - the doctors’ trade union - of its members have been published today and reveal the effect of ongoing strikes on NHS morale as a new three-day strike begins in England.

Of the 1,935 junior doctors who responded to the survey, 89% of them said that they feel less valued working as a result of the government’s actions compared to before the industrial dispute began.

When asked if the dispute had led them to consider leaving the profession, a shocking 53% responded that they were now considering leaving the health service, with 14% actively making plans to do so as a result of the government’s response to their strikes for better pay. According to the BMA’s calculations, junior doctors have seen a 26% real terms pay cut over the last 15 years.

The government has offered pay increases to junior doctors, but they have been refused because they are below inflation. 80% of junior doctors surveyed blame their ongoing strikes on the government, while 10% put the blame squarely at English Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s feet.

With confidence in the Health Secretary low, BMA chair of council Professor Philip Banfield has written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak today to urge him to intervene in order to bring the dispute to an end.

“No doctor wants to strike,” Professor Banfield writes. “They have been forced to do so to try and get your government to listen and understand the realities of how desperate things have become on the frontline of the NHS… I urge you to listen to our doctors and to meet with me and our Junior Doctors Committee as soon as possible to find a way forward in this dispute”.

Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, said: “Junior doctors are in despair at this Government’s refusal to listen. It should never have taken two whole rounds of strike action to even put a number on the table, and for that number to be a 5% pay offer – in a year of double-digit inflation, itself another pay cut – beggars belief. We have made clear that junior doctors are looking for the full restoration of our pay, which has seen a 26% cut.

“Today, they are demonstrating what that means to the survival of the NHS. Junior doctors don’t expect the NHS to survive at the current rate. And they are right – it cannot survive without its most precious resource, its workforce.

“The NHS can only function with a workforce that is properly valued, and that is impossible when doctors are being told they are worth a quarter less than they were 15 years ago. When doctors say that the Government’s attitude is causing them to think about leaving the NHS, the Government has to listen.

“But the refusal to listen is not just the fault of the Health Secretary. It is clear now that doctors don’t believe he has been given the power to end the dispute with a fair offer, even if he wanted to. We must now therefore look to Rishi Sunak to intervene as the individual with the power over the purse strings.

“He has ultimate responsibility for the NHS and his political legacy will rest on how he treats it. He has to think carefully today about whether he wants to drive more doctors out with his attitude, or whether he wants to leave an NHS in 10 years’ time that we can all be proud of.”