JUNIOR doctors have once again been standing shoulder to shoulder in the cold following their third day of strike action calling for fair pay.
Staff outside Whiston Hospital joined those across the country is calling on the Government for a pay restoration as The British Medical Association (BMA) says the wage for junior doctors has fallen 26 per cent since 2008-09, with newly qualified medics making less than a barista in a coffee shop.
An advertising campaign launched by the trade union says: "Pret a Manger has announced it will pay up to £14.10 per hour. A junior doctor makes just £14.09.
"Thanks to this government you can make more serving coffee than saving patients. This week junior doctors will take strike action, so they are paid what they are worth."
Staff with signs stating ‘We all deserve better’, ‘pay restoration is the best medicine’ and ‘over pressured and under-valued’ stood together outside Whiston Hospital in solidarity with the strike action.
BMA representative and Level 4 Junior Doctor Katerina Efstathiou, said: “People firstly don’t realise that junior doctors aren’t all straight out of university.
“It takes six years to become doctors, leaving us in debt between £30,000 to £50,000 and there are different levels of junior doctor, and you can be a junior doctor for eight years.
“Exams cost £800-£1,000 each and one of the exams, the MRCS has a 34 per cent pass rate and costs more than £1,000.
“So my point is it take a lot of work and dedication from your GCSEs onto higher education, then loans and lots of work to become a junior so it’s not right that junior doctors are then getting paid less than a barista at Pret.
“This isn’t a pay increase we want, it’s a pay restoration for years of them not increasing the pay junior doctors deserve.
“The NHS is understaffed and under funded with many valued colleagues leaving the profession all together or going to Australia or New Zealand.
"Nurses also are under pressure and we are being left with those still here overworked and tired to fill the demand and staying late, which impacts on mental health.
“Imagine waking up at 6am, getting to work then working through in theory to 6pm but actually no one can take over and patients need you so you stay the maximum time you can.
“This isn’t safe for patients, it isn’t safe for staff and many are depressed and we have less people joining the profession and many leaving.
“Doctors are an important part of the NHS, everyone needs us at some point. Now we need help.”
She added: “Thank you so much for the public support, it’s been so lovely to people turn up with drinks and sandwiches and chocolate to keep us going and honking their horns, we really appreciate it.”
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said he valued the hard work of junior doctors and that he wanted unions to "come to the negotiating table" to enter formal talks.
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