Junior doctors are taking part in the longest strike in history

The historical 96 hour strike started on Tuesday 11 April and ended Friday 15 April. The junior doctors are asking for a fair pay rise in line with inflation.

The British Medical Association’s press release said: “Junior doctors know all too well the frustration of patients waiting too long for care, with a waiting list of 7.2 million in England.

“We share the frustration of anyone who had their care disrupted during the industrial action, this is the same frustration we’re already experiencing on a daily basis because the NHS cannot cope.”

A junior doctor’s hourly rate can be as low as £14.09. With many junior doctors earning less than a barista, many are demanding fair pay for the job they do.

Credit: BMA

Dr Chloë Guy, a Speciality Trainee doctor in Paediatric medicine, said: “If I’m on the wards, then my job is to see every single patient on three wards. Review them daily, make sure their plan is still suitable and chase up any investigations.

“I then action all of their plan, make sure any scans or blood tests get done, make sure they’re getting the correct medication.”

Junior doctor’s shifts are very varied, they cover everything from clerking and requesting tests and scans, to making referrals and discharging patients.

Dr Guy said: “We see every patient that comes in the door, that can vary from kind of one hundred patients a day up to about three hundred a day.

“There’s a significant amount of duty and responsibility, we make life and death decisions every day.

“We are the ones making the decisions such as do you go to ITU? Do you have a do not resuscitate in place? It was me identifying things like sepsis and heart attacks and treating it.”

Over the last decade, junior doctor’s wages have not risen in line with inflation, leaving them with a real time 25% pay cut.

Dr Guy said; “I calculated it, between four till eight in the evenings, I would look after six wards of patients alone. Thirty patients on every ward, so one hundred and eighty patients. That’s eight pence per patient an hour only.”

The HCSA, the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association union, said junior doctors were given a pay rise this year of only 2%. The union is open to entering into talks with the government about raising junior doctors’ wages.