Doctors strike outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham

Express & Star

Doctors strike outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.

Transcript

00:00 Underpaid! Overworked!

00:02 Underpaid! Overworked!

00:04 Underpaid!

00:06 Clubs don't pay the bills! Clubs don't pay the bills!

00:10 Clubs don't pay the bills! Clubs don't pay the bills!

00:14 So this is our tenth round of action and we've been in dispute with the government for 16 months now

00:19 and we've yet to be provided with a credible offer

00:22 and look, all we're asking for is a doctor that's paid £15 an hour to be paid £20 an hour

00:28 that's £20 an hour to provide life-saving treatment

00:32 and I think most people would find that to be very reasonable

00:36 and now we're not even asking for that all to happen in one go

00:39 we understand that 15 years of pay cuts, it's difficult to overturn that all overnight

00:44 and we've told the government we're looking to find creative ways and potentially a pay deal

00:50 over a certain number of years but the government is yet to come forward and provide us with a credible offer

00:56 look, I see a way through this but the ball's in the government's court now to sort this out

01:01 OK, and Dr Sharma, what needs to change now?

01:04 Well, what needs to change is the government needs to provide a credible offer or things will continue to get worse

01:10 I've seen so many of my colleagues leave the profession

01:14 people I've worked with, studied with and who are now living in Australia, living in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth

01:21 and they're earning many multiples of the salary here, having a much better work-life balance

01:26 and these are talented British doctors that we need to focus on retaining

01:30 we have a waiting list of about 7.7 million and it was 7.2 million before doctors even took any strike action

01:37 we used to have real standards in this country, patients used to be seen with an A&E within four hours

01:42 and now you're lucky to be seen within 12

01:45 and until we focus on the key issue of retaining doctors, then we're going to continue seeing things getting worse

01:51 So, we've had our pay cut by 26% over the last 15 years

01:56 doctors are not worth 26% less than we were 15 years ago

01:59 we don't do 26% less work, we don't see 26% fewer patients

02:03 on the contrary, I don't think we've ever been working harder

02:06 but this whole dispute has not come down to fairness and justice for doctors

02:10 we live in the real world and you don't get paid what you work, no one does, it's just what you negotiate

02:14 and quite simply it's a supply and demand equation

02:17 the supply of doctors is very low, the demand for doctors and healthcare is at an all-time high

02:21 the government's response is to continuously and vociferously cut the wages of doctors

02:26 and now we're losing doctors

02:27 and a by-product of hemorrhaging doctors is that there's not enough of us to look after patients

02:32 and patients suffer and they die

02:33 so it's not about fairness for doctors, that doesn't matter

02:36 it's simply about retaining doctors

02:38 and how do you retain doctors? You give them a credible payoff and that's why we're on strike today

02:42 and so a huge number of doctors are obviously going abroad

02:46 we don't blame them, it's better work conditions, better pay over there

02:50 what's stopping all the doctors going over?

02:54 they want a better NHS to work and they don't want to have to leave

02:58 no one wants to leave, right? Because it's a huge commitment to leave

03:02 but it's getting to the stage now where you can get paid, as a consultant

03:07 three times to ten times more in another country

03:10 you work less hours, you've also got the facilities to provide top quality care

03:15 to be completely honest, the care we provide in the NHS is rubbish, it's diabolical

03:20 our cancer care is horrific

03:24 to get an ADHD assessment in Kent, for example, a seven year waiting list

03:29 this is not good healthcare, this is rubbish healthcare

03:32 people in this country have worked their whole lives paying for an NHS

03:36 they deserve something that's not just functional but the best

03:39 the NHS was the best, so it's kind of

03:43 soul destroying to work in the system is very bad

03:46 you don't get remunerated appropriately for it

03:49 and there's no goodwill left, so doctors are leaving

03:52 and who loses? Well doctors lose but also the public loses as well

03:56 when do we want it? Now!

03:58 how are we going to get it? Strike!

04:01 well done everyone

04:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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