Junior doctors picket outside QA Hospital in Portsmouth on first of four NHS strike days in latest pay dispute

Several NHS workers stood on the picket line near the hospital on Tuesday, April 11 on the the first of four strike days across the NHS. This latest round of strikes comes as part of a pay dispute with the government to see a ‘full pay restoration’ in line with inflation over the past 15 years.

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Wessex region BMA representative and junior doctor Joshua Morton said: ‘We’re on strike because junior doctors over the last fifteen years have lost about a quarter of their pay in real terms.

‘That's the equivalent of working three months of the year for free compared to our colleagues fifteen years ago. This is on the back of an NHS that's under increasing amounts of pressure. Junior doctors cannot go on like this with so little pay. My FY1 colleagues are earning £14 an hour - they could earn more working in a coffee shop than being junior doctors. These are the people saving your lives.

‘The aim of the strikes is full pay restoration to 2008 levels. We eagerly await negotiation with the government. Steve Barclay still refuses to sit down with our representatives to negotiate around that. Members of the public have been really positive. Everyone who’s passed by has stopped to say that they support us. People have been bringing us snacks and drinks which we really appreciate.’

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Also on the picket line was A&E trainee Bea Gardner who added: ‘The pay issues that we’re experiencing are driving doctors away from the NHS, which means in 15 years there might not be anybody to give you care. I apologise if you’ve missed you have missed your appointment or your operation today. We’d rather it wasn’t that way but the government have had a year of invitations now to have pay conversations and they haven’t taken that up. That’s why I’m here today.

Health secretary Steve Barclay MP has urged the union to cease strike action and called its position on pay ‘unrealistic’. In a Twitter post, the MP said: ‘The NHS sees more pressure than usual over Easter and the 4 day junior doctors' strike threatens to cause significant disruption.’