Up next in 10
Junior doctors in England are set to stage a five-day strike later this month amid an ongoing pay dispute with the Government.
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced the walkout will run from 7am on July 25 to 7am on July 30, giving the government two weeks to begin negotiations on what it calls “a path to pay restoration.”
Nick Ferrari speaks to LBC listeners to see what they think.
00:00 - Marie - 'I feel completely at odds with the BMA on this'
03:30 - John - 'They should be getting a wage cut'
04:35 - Alex - 'I think they're being totally ungracious'
06:19 - David - 'If they don't want to help their patients, then why don't people tell them to get stuffed and leave?'
Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp
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0:00
Marie's in Epsom. Marie, you're on the radio. What are you going to say? Good morning
0:03
Good morning, Nick. I'm probably not the best speaker on the radio. Why
0:07
And I would never... Neither am I. I've got away with it for years. I just felt compelled to call because I feel completely at odds with the BMA on this
0:17
Right. I don't... I don't understand when we've got so much doctor unemployment
0:23
Are you in the profession? Yes. Ah, right. OK. GP or hospital doctor
0:28
I'm a GP. I'm self-employed. I don't understand why when we've got so much doctor employment
0:34
when we've got brilliantly qualified, very experienced doctors who are unemployed and we've got competition, something like 200 applicants for resident doctor post
0:48
I don't understand. To me, it seems like the money comes from the same pot
0:53
So surely if we push salaries up further, does that not just make doctors more expensive to employ
1:02
Well, I would have said so, but you're the expert. You're in the profession
1:06
How widespread is this level of dissent, would you say? It's difficult to get a feel on because it's difficult to approach that conversation with resident doctors
1:20
I feel that something that's missing is that we put an awful lot of emphasis on the salary
1:26
Everybody's salary is not great at the moment. But actually, if you're getting a salary, that's better than not
1:31
And it's horrible speaking to doctors who are unemployed at the moment, who are highly trained, highly skilled, really compassionate, great at their jobs
1:40
and are not able to fulfill the career that they wanted to do, that they trained to do, that they wanted to do
1:45
is really disappointing. And I think to talk only about salary increases when we got so many unemployed doctors is a little bit thoughtless and I wish they would put more effort into looking at how we get all these beautifully trained
1:59
wonderfully trained staff back into the job. Doctor, can I ask you a final question
2:05
Do you fear the BMA has been rather radicalised here, or is that an unfair opinion
2:10
I feel like they're chasing money. I think that they miss that there's other aspects that doctors need
2:16
in order to feel valued at work. You know, if we go back 20 years or so, junior doctors were being offered hospital accommodation
2:26
There was good camaraderie. There was good social. All of those things have been cut and cut and cut, obviously due to money
2:34
But there are other things that we can be doing to support doctors' well-being
2:39
It doesn't help to have doctor unemployment, which leads to gaps in the rota
2:44
which leads to overwork those that are in work feeling overworked and underpaid and actually
2:50
perhaps the better thing to look at would be how do we get more of these doctors that we have
2:55
walking around driving having to drive ubers having to work for free in order to stay on
3:01
performers list how do we get those doctors back into work how do we create a well-funded service
3:07
that employs the doctors that are just out there fully qualified ready to go fascinating input
3:14
but thanks for the job you do. Thanks for the information you've shared. Marie, have a good one at work
3:18
John in Coventry, your level of support to the doctors. Morning, John. Morning, Nick
3:22
I think it's reasonable holding people to ransom like this. It's some of the best education in the world
3:28
and if you've got a UK doctor training certificate, it's a golden ticket to go anywhere you want
3:35
So they're basically saying, we want the money, or we're going to go, and I think it's terrible
3:41
I think if you go into that job you have a duty to be you know you got a vocation towards people Well I don think it unfair to say that you give us at least six years
3:53
I've just made that number up at random. But having gone through training, I think you should give us a certain number of years back into the country
4:00
Well, I mean, if you look at performance, 2008 were number one
4:05
NHS was number one in the world. It was an absolute, you know, market standard. Hang on, there's no other NHS in the world
4:10
well i mean for private for public health care but there's um i mean we're like 30 we're like 36
4:18
now so if it's on performance i think they should be getting a wage cut well certainly if it's well
4:24
obviously they don't get paid if they're not there but if it's on ours they'd definitely be given a wage cut wouldn't they alice in teddington how much support do you have good morning i think
4:32
you're entirely correct um nick they are being absolutely avaricious you're a former i recognize
4:38
you. You were a doctor, rather. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. I started training in 1962
4:47
Anyway, I retired in 2003 rather. We have reunions every few years
4:57
When people heard I have retired, they said, oh, Alex, you should have held on
5:02
for another year. You've got a much better pension. My pension, the only person who knows this
5:07
until now, is my accountant. What are you going to tell me
5:12
I'm nervous now. NHS pension after tax is £3,787 a month after tax
5:23
Good luck to you. When I was a junior doctor, we were resident
5:28
we worked over 120 hours a week, believe it or not. We were resident doctors
5:33
These are junior doctors. Goodness knows why they're called residents, because they aren No I just agree with you so much I think there just be totally other issues I don know whether you still in the BMA I don know if you ever were in the BMA Do you think it become rather radical
5:47
Yeah, because I've been... I was going to resign, to be honest
5:51
because they've behaved so appallingly. But I get the BMJ free, because I've been a member
5:58
for so long. They now give me gratuitous membership. I feel like saying
6:04
I don't really want the BMJ anymore, except I find the obituary column
6:08
increasingly interesting. Oh, dear. David in Hampstead, the point you want to make, David
6:12
Good morning. Good morning, Nick. Great show. Oh, thank you, sir. You know, it's so ironic
6:17
because the same people who are saying that, you know, millionaires can all get stuffed
6:21
when they're leaving, we don't need them in our country and everything, when realistically, obviously, we do
6:26
are the same people saying, yes, doctors should strike and everything, rather than saying, okay, they don't really want to help their patients
6:31
quite clearly. They've got a good deal already. It's having another good, you know, they're saying they want an even better unrealistic deal
6:37
If they don't want to help their patients, and if they don't want to help the country, then why don't people tell them to get stuffed
6:42
And the reason they don't, other than obviously we need doctors like we need millionaires
6:46
the reason they don't is because they're part of the same kind of, I can only describe it as like a bit of a socialist cabal
6:52
where the BMA have just been absolutely, you know, taken over. And this whole deification of they're all doing it
6:58
just because they love patients and they love helping people, it's so obviously not true, but nobody wants to call it out
7:03
Why do you suppose that is? I mean, I think that, like I said
7:09
I think they've been captured by an ideology. I think if you go back however many years
7:13
I mean, I remember my family doctor growing up, and, you know, I'm only 33
7:18
but I remember my family doctor growing up, and I mean, there was no militant bone in that man's body
7:23
I mean, he was purely there to help his patient. That was the good old days
7:28
David, thank you. I really like the way you linked a story from yesterday to today
7:32
Many people will be angry. If you don't, David, thank you
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