Junior doctors took to the picket lines in protest against stagnant pay and their working conditions for a second day in a row this week.
Today, March 14, around 25 people stood outside Watford General Hospital in solidarity with the thousands of other doctors across the country calling for fair pay and better working conditions.
The British Medical Association (BMA) claims pay has been cut by more than 26% since 2008 with newly qualified doctors being paid as little as £14.09 an hour.
For neurology registrar Matthew Leung, 32, the current situation is so severe he has considered moving abroad.
Mr Leung, who now works at Charing Cross Hospital but lives in Watford and worked at Watford General Hospital for three years, said: “I worked in New Zealand for a year.
“Pay and conditions are better there and going back crosses my mind a lot.”
Mr Leung, who has been a doctor for six years and takes some extra shifts at Watford General Hospital, expressed a strong message about the government’s handling of fair pay.
He said: “They blew £37 billion on a failed track and trace system.
“They blew £15 billion on unusable PPE, and they can’t cough up £1 billion to restore our pay.”
Mr Leung left a stark warning about the future of the NHS.
He said: “We are on a slippery slope towards the degradation and privatisation of the NHS.
“I feel very angry about the way the government has treated the NHS over the last five years.”
Tom Forshall, 37, who works at Watford General Hospital as a respiratory registrar took part in the strike action because he thinks the service is at a “breaking point”.
He said: “I am seeing poor staff retention of good quality trainees.
“I have seen a lot more gaps since the 2016 strikes. It is getting worse year on year.”
Mr Forshall, who lives in north west London and has been a doctor for 11 years, told the Watford Observer he understands why some people are disappointed that their appointments have been cancelled.
But he added: “We are doing this because we don’t want a situation where things get more difficult and their appointments are cancelled or delayed simply because the staff isn’t available.”
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Medical registrar Mayu Teranaka, 29, said she was striking because she has seen too many of her colleagues leave the profession.
She said: “We are asking for fair pay because we need to make the job more attractive to encourage people to join us and not leave.
“The purpose of the strikes is to remind people what the future could hold if things keep going like this.”
Ms Teranaka, who lives in north west London and works at Watford General Hospital, said doctors do not want to strike but they have not been offered an alternative.
She added: “Overall I love my job, it’s so rewarding to help people in any way that we can.
“But things have been made 100 times worse by Covid, we lost all our reserve.
“People are burnt out and we don’t have it in us to keep going.”
And for those who have left the profession Ms Teranaka said she “feels sad but also happy for them because they are putting themselves first for once, which is something NHS staff have not been doing for a long time”.
Health and social care secretary Steve Barclay said the BMA declined to enter formal pay negotiations on the condition strikes are paused.
He said: “I want to find a fair settlement which recognises the crucial role of junior doctors and the wider economic pressures facing the UK.”
Wednesday, March 15 is the last day of the junior doctors’ strike.
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