‘Burnt out’ junior doctors prepare for strike action

A JUNIOR doctor from Castlederg has warned that many of her colleagues across the North are facing ‘burnout’ due to understaffing and poor pay, as they prepare to take strike action for the first time.

After a six-week ballot, local junior doctors will now take part in a 24-hour walkout from March 6.

Speaking with the UlsterHerald, Dr Alex Todd, a 32-year-old Queen’s University graduate, said that the main focus of the strike action was pay restoration.

Dr Todd said, “Focusing on a pay uplift, restoration is a key ask.

“After 16 years of pay erosion, we have faced a 30 per-cent loss of pay, and conditions aren’t good on the ground.

“The upcoming strike action is to ensure that we are valued and getting the pay we deserve.”

Dr Todd further stated that it’s not all about money, however, and that pay restoration would filter down and improve the retention of doctors on the ground.

“It would certainly increase recruitment and decrease workload,” she said.

“It would also help tackle waiting lists, increase morale, and, in turn, will help with patient care and safety.

“We are currently struggling to recruit doctors to work in the North.

“Trainee recruitment numbers aren’t meeting their targets, and many doctors are facing burnout, and with understaffed rotas and heavy workloads, many others are leaving to work overseas where conditions are known to be better.”

Newly-qualified doctors in the North earn £26,000 per year, while in England, the starting rate is more than £33,000, and £32,000 in Scotland. Junior doctors in England have already staged strike action in their dispute over pay.

Since the announcement of strike action on Monday, Health Minister Robin Swann has written to the BMA Junior Doctors Committee in relation to the planned industrial action next month.

He stated that, while room for manoeuvre on pay may be limited at this present time, he still believed that dialogue offered the best way forward.

He said, “Please be assured that my department’s door remains open for discussions.

“As someone with a track record of valuing and supporting health service staff, I must question the merit of the industrial action planned for next month.

“I know it will impact heavily on patients.

“As the Executive is starting the important work of stabilising public services, I would ask that all parts of our workforce give us time and space to tackle some exceptionally- challenging and intractable problems which have worsened as a result of Covid and lack of Government.”

The Health Minister further- stated that he fully-understood and sympathised with the frustration of junior doctors over both pay and the relentless pressure on services, and said that his plea was that this frustration should not spill into industrial action that could not achieve ‘anything of substance’.