Junior doctors stage first ever strike over pay in Derry and call for work to be properly valued

The strike was called after 97.6 per cent of junior doctors balloted by BMA NI voted in favour of industrial action for full pay restoration to reverse what the association has described as ‘16 years pay erosion’.

Dr. Rhys Kelly, a young medic working in Endocrinology & Diabetes at Altnagelvin, said junior doctors feel they have been left with no choice but to take part in a first ever strike over pay this week.

“This is the result of quite a long time of long hours, being overworked, underpaid and undervalued. Certainly since I've been an F1 [year one doctor] six years ago I've been feeling the strain. It's only been a matter of time,” he told the ‘Journal’.

Dr. Kelly said a 24-hour walk-out on Wednesday was the last thing he and his colleagues wanted to implement.

“None of us really wanted for it to come to this. This is a last resort on the back of many, many years of chronic underfunding, of being overworked and underpaid...we are not being paid appropriately for the amount of hours that we work,” he said.

The BMA has urged the Health Minister Robin Swann to engage in meaningful negotiations towards an immediate, above inflation pay award and a commitment to full pay restoration to 2008 levels.

In advance of the strike the Department of Health warned of significant disruption to the local health service with most scheduled activity not taking place in order to free up the senior medical workforce.

But Dr. Kelly said sufficient cover has been put in place to ensure the needs of patients are met.

“Of course, I'm deeply sorry for any inconvenience this causes but unfortunately this is the state of affairs at the minute. Drastic needs call for drastic measures...We know from our colleagues in England who have been striking now for the past number of months that the strikes are safe.

"We have provided enough cover. Our consultant colleagues are currently on site doing the necessary emergency care and out-of-hours work but there has to have been some impact and disruption to elective care. We need to have an impact. We need to be heard,” he said.

People Before Profit Councillor Shaun Harkin joined the picket line on Wednesday.

"It has been fantastic talking to the junior doctors on the picket line. In terms of advocates for the health service you couldn't meet a better group of people.

"The hours that they work, the extra hours that they put in week in week out to help people, that's who is here on the picket line and that's why the Health Minister has to do everything that he can to make sure that they are paid properly and that their working conditions are improved,” said Colr. Harkin.

He blamed the Conservative Government and Stormont Executive for, he claimed, ‘creating a situation where our health service doesn't meet the needs of the majority of people’.

“We have 500,000 people on a waiting list. Patients' needs are not being prioritised by government. There's the stealth privatisation of the NHS and the people who are on the picket line are fighting to protect the NHS and pay is part of that.

Thousands expected to take part in one of biggest strikes ever witnessed in Derry

"We want to have doctors who are going to stay in the NHS and to be paid properly. Their working conditions have to be improved. This is all part of the fight to protect the NHS into the future and basically turn around privatisation,” he claimed.

Dr. Kelly warned poor pay was a major contributory factor to a brain drain that has led many junior doctors and other medical professionals depart these shores.

“I love my job. No one goes into this job not knowing that it is tough. It is tough but I love my job. I love working here in NI. I love working here in Altnagelvin but you know, I'll not lie, pastures are greener elsewhere.

"A couple of minutes down the road, to work down south, we would get paid, I can't tell you an exact figure but double, near triple, the amount.

"I have a number of colleagues who have worked with me over the past number of years who have flown over to Australia and are working better hours and are getting paid better and are getting training opportunities that we are not getting here.

"So yes, that has left us with some staff shortages and it means the hours that we work are longer, we are working harder, working more than one job at the one time. We are not having the work that we do recognised.”

Colr. Harkin said he also had been told of doctors who have left Derry to go and work in Australia but that equally pay levels are more attractive just 20 miles away in Donegal.

"If they left to go to Letterkenny Hospital they are paid double or even triple what they are paid at Altnagelvin and their working conditions are better.

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"They are staying here because they want to help people. In terms of why they got into this in the first place, if you talk to the vast majority of them they are saying, ‘we didn't get into this to make money, we got into this to help people’.

"Why would you work 100 hours a week? Why would you work for £12 an hour or less, given the pressure that doctors have to face day in day out? There aren't enough doctors right now. There are all sorts of vacancies. That puts huge pressure on them.

"At the end of the day this does come down to finding the money to invest in our health service. That means investing in the work force. That means paying doctors properly.”

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