The haemorrhaging of junior doctors from the Northern Ireland health service will intensify if their calls for a “reasonable” pay rise are not listened to, striking medics have warned.
Recently-qualified doctors across the region took to the picket lines on Wednesday in their first industrial action over pay. A 24-hour walkout began at 8am, affecting hospitals and GP surgeries. At one of the main picket locations dozens of junior doctors gathered outside the Royal Victoria Hospital complex in Belfast to demand action on pay.
Ahead of the strike, Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann warned that the disruption caused would be significant and would lead to thousands of missed appointments and procedures.
The strike was called after 97.6 per cent of junior doctors balloted by BMA (British Medical Association) Northern Ireland voted in favour of industrial action. The union has called for a commitment to full pay restoration to 2008 levels.
Dr Fiona Griffin, chairwoman of BMA’s Northern Ireland junior doctors committee, joined colleagues on the picket line at the Royal Victoria. She said they felt they had been left with no choice but to stand up for themselves.
The doctor, who works at Craigavon Area Hospital, said some newly-qualified doctors were earning £13 per hour in Northern Ireland. “Our pay has been eroded by 30 per cent over the past 15 years,” she said. “So for every time inflation goes up and our pay doesn’t match inflation, it’s effectively a pay cut.
“There’s many people considering leaving the professional altogether. We really are at a crisis point. And I know we say that a lot in Northern Ireland, but we genuinely are at a crisis point. The way we are working at the minute, it is not sustainable. Doctors are feeling really broken.”
Dr Griffin added: “We want to work on those things together, we’re not being greedy, we’re just asking for things that are reasonable and that are going to actually keep doctors in post in Northern Ireland.”
Dr Steven Montgomery, a paediatrician at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, acknowledged the impact on patients but said: “I’m hoping this will be our first and last strike action. We don’t want to be here. We are struggling to fill jobs here in Northern Ireland. We have over 15 per cent of junior doctor vacancies.
“My fear is that at the minute we’re haemorrhaging staff, and my fear is that if things don’t improve we’ll continue to lose staff, situations will become more unsafe, staffing levels will become worse, burnout will increase and we’re already at the highest rate of burnout out of all the devolved nations at the minute.”
A Department of Health spokesman said “the minister and department remain committed to negotiations”.
He added: “In line with independent pay body recommendations, junior doctors in Northern Ireland have been offered an average pay increase of 9.1 per cent for 2023/24, with those in their first year receiving a 10.7 per cent uplift. This award will be backdated to April 2023 and should be viewed in the context of pay settlements across the wider Northern Ireland public sector.
“In relation to 2023/24 pay, the department is only in a position to implement the recommendations of independent pay review bodies or mirror pay settlements in England. This approach is being applied to all health service staffing groups. It is not possible to make exceptions.”