Medics are working exhausting 13-hour shifts with no time to eat or drink, a junior doctor has said. It comes as thousands of staff vote on whether to strike over pay and conditions.
Dr Shivam Sharma, who has been a junior doctor in Birmingham for four years, said he was among those who will be voting in favour of industrial action. "When you’re working a 13-hour shift, you hardly have time for any kind of break to get something to eat or drink," he said.
"The best you have time for is a quick toilet break. You feel like you’re being put in a situation where you’re set up to fail because you don’t have the resources and help around you to succeed. I'm doing the job of 3-4 doctors at once - we’re all burnt out, tired and under-valued."
A strike ballot of 45,000 junior doctors who are members of the British Medical Association opened on Monday (January 9). A result is expected in February, with a 72-hour walkout - during which medics will 'not provide emergency care' - set to take place in March depending on the vote's outcome, BirminghamLive reports.
The BMA says 'overworked' junior doctors in England have seen a 26 per cent real-terms pay cut over the past 15 years and have urged the government to meet and negotiate a solution. A March strike would be the second time in history junior doctors have taken industrial action.
Junior doctors were excluded from a pay rise this year because their contract is subject to a multi-year pay deal. Dr Sharma, a BMA rep in the West Midlands, said: "I’ve absolutely thought about leaving - why would you not?
"Junior doctors have had a 26% real terms pay cut over the past 15 years - but we don’t see 26% fewer patients, we don’t do 26% less work. Junior doctors are leaving in their droves and if we don’t manage to reverse the pay cut then I probably will too. I worked throughout the Covid pandemic and junior doctors really put themselves in the firing line.
"We were working ridiculously long hours with little to no PPE and no vaccines. The government clapped for us but has rewarded us with further pay cuts - at a time when half of junior doctors are struggling to pay bills."
