Why we are striking just days into our first job – junior doctors

Junior doctors from the British Medical Association (BMA) are staging a four-day walkout from 0700 on Friday August 11.

Some of the doctors on strike have only been working in the NHS for nine days, having started their first NHS jobs on Wednesday August 2.

Here some of these medics tell the PA news agency why they feel the need to strike.

– Dr Omolara Akinnawonu from London

Dr Omolara Akinnawonu, 24, said she is striking for “future pay and working conditions”.

She told PA that many doctors struggle to make ends meet when they first start in the health service.

She said it was an “extraordinary” situation where medics were striking so early in their careers.

“I don’t think many of us as students imagined that we will be having to take to picket lines but I think that it’s necessary because it’s safeguarding our right now and also our future – our future pay and also our future working conditions,” she said.

“And we’re grateful to the colleagues who started the groundwork and we’re happy to pick up the momentum and carry on and work towards pay restoration.”

She added: “Students go through medical school and you incur costs, the hidden costs of doing a medical degree.

“The NHS bursary and student finance doesn’t really cover maintenance fees, so you’re going through the final years as a medical student at a loss and having to make those (costs) up, be it borrowing from family or student loans or using your overdraft.

“We sort of graduated at the backfoot and to arrive finally as a doctor to not receive a fair salary is not fair.

“You don’t think about those things when you go to medical school, you’re thinking about the career and profession, but the realities of what it actually means to be a medical student and then working and the cost of living makes it more important.”

Asked if pay for first-year doctors would be enough to make ends meet, Dr Akinnawonu added: “It is going to be very difficult.”

– Dr Raymond Effah from Luton

Dr Raymond Effah, 24, is no stranger to union activity, having previously been co-chairman of the BMA’s medical students’ committee.

He said some of the people he went to medical school with dropped out after a month or two of NHS work and are using their skills in other sectors.

He told PA: “When it comes to medical students, we’re quite aware of what’s been going on in the NHS – final-year students do a lot of placements with doctors, so we see what’s going on, we see the struggles, we see the pressures that the NHS is under, that doctors are under.

“When you start doing the job, you immediately see the same things.

“And it really makes you wonder what is your future in the NHS? Are you going to be able to stay in the job?

“And you look at your pay packet and think to yourself, this just doesn’t quite hit the spot.”

“Looking at the hours I’m doing it just doesn’t quite make sense, the numbers don’t add up.”

He added: “Many (first year) doctors aren’t starting on zero, all of us are in our overdraft and are very likely to have taken credit cards out to be able to make it to this point.

“So we’re not starting on zero, we’re starting on minus several thousand pounds.

“A lot of the narrative around the strikes has been don’t worry about it, you’re a training physician, and when you’re consultant all of it will be fixed.

“But consultants are striking too, so I think that tells you everything that you need to know about the state of being a doctor in the UK at the moment.”

– Dr Majd Al Bakry from Bristol

“We are actually the ones the most affected because we still have many, many years to go in our careers and the pay cuts that we’re facing will compound on us the most,” said Dr Majd Al Bakry, 24.

He said most medical students graduate with £100,000 of debt.

He added: “I think everyone in the system is kind of fed up.

“And this is affecting everyone, both financially, their mental health and their productivity, and this, in a way, compromises patient safety.”

He said: “We have been to medical school for five or six years on average, which prepares us for the job.

“But when we’re understaffed, it becomes really challenging when you have just started working when we have to see many patients more than we would be expected to really care for.”