Seven out of 10 junior doctors treated patients despite not feeling well enough
More than 70% of junior doctors have treated patients despite not feeling well enough in the last three months, a damning survey shows.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said ministers’ failure to get a grip of the NHS crisis is “not only threatening patient safety, but is also putting junior doctors’ health at serious risk”.
Its study of almost 3,000 junior doctors in England found 71% came to work despite not being well enough to perform their duties in the past three months.
Some 78% have felt unwell as a result of work-related stress in the last year alone.
And 81% said their health and wellbeing has worsened or not improved since December 2021 – when Covid-related pressures pushed NHS staff to breaking point.
The BMA is balloting junior doctors in England on strike action, with the result expected at the end of the month.
They could be the latest band of NHS staff to join nurses, paramedics, physios and midwives in staging walkouts.
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Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock)
Junior doctors’ pay has been cut by 26.1% in real terms since 2008/09, according to the BMA.
Low pay and poor working conditions is creating an exodus of NHS staff.
The Mirror revealed last week more than one in 10 health workers left the ailing NHS last year in a new grim record.
Around seven in 10 junior doctors say they “always or frequently” work in understaffed rotas, which could be placing patient and staff safety at risk, the survey found.
It has led to more than half of junior doctors (51%) describing their desire to work in the NHS in the next year as “low” or “very low”.
The BMA says it fears the mounting strain being placed on junior doctors will have a lasting impact on workforce numbers as doctors become increasingly burnt out and leave the NHS.
One junior doctor anonymously told the union: “I became a doctor to help people but the current state of the NHS is preventing staff like me from providing the standard of care we have been trained to give and that we think patients deserve.
“When you’re covering so many patients in a day, hungry and with no breaks, you simply can’t do a good job by them.
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“The conditions we’re working in make it a daily battle to keep patients somewhat safe.
“I have come into work when ill because I know my trust is understaffed and I want to keep patients safe.
“Like so many of my colleagues, I do question whether it is worth staying in the NHS, as the current situation is totally unsustainable.”
Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs, said: “This Government needs to stop pretending that the pressures we’re seeing this winter isn’t a crisis of their own making.
“Ministers have failed to step up and their failure to resource and staff the health service properly is not only threatening patient safety, but is also putting junior doctors’ health at serious risk.
“No doctor deserves to work in horrendous conditions while not being valued or supported to do their job properly.
“Continual devaluing of their life saving work will drive more junior doctors away, and the vicious cycle of staffing shortages will continue.
“Until we restore our pay to restore our workforce, this will only get worse. The Government needs to get real and get to the table to discuss.”
It comes ahead of a massive day of strike action in the NHS on Monday when nurses and ambulance workers will down tools in a dispute over pay.
Walkouts in Wales were called off on Friday after a last-minute pay offer from the Senedd.
But Downing Street said no talks were planned between ministers and unions over the weekend to resolve strikes in England.
A No10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister believes that the way to resolve these disputes is talking, we want to encourage unions to get around the table without inflicting the disruption we’ve seen on the British people.
“Our focus will be on mitigating the disruption caused by the strikes.”