Doctors strike outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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]