NHS strike: More than half of doctors at the Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust are junior doctors

This week, junior doctors are striking over poor pay and working conditions – with the British Medical Association, a union for medical professionals, saying junior doctors have suffered a 26% real-terms cut to their pay since 2008-09.

Figures from NHS England show there were the equivalent of 593 full-time junior doctors working at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (QA Hospital) as of December – 54.3% of the 1,092 doctors working at the trust.

Across England there were 66,000 junior doctors working for hospital and community health services as of December 2022, making up 49.9% of all clinicians.

A strike organised by the BMA – which represents around 50,000 junior doctors – is set to last 96 hours, ending this Saturday.

Figures for the number striking by NHS Trust were not available.

Any doctor below consultant level is referred to as 'junior', meaning junior doctors encompass doctors just starting in the NHS and those who have been training for many years for specialist positions.

They receive a wide range of salaries, with 'Foundation Year 1 doctors' – the most junior category – starting on £14.09 an hour, or around £29,000 a year.

The Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust has 23 such doctors working at the trust at this point, alongside a further 70 second year foundation doctors.

The number of junior doctors has been increasing across England over the past decade as part of a wider uptick in clinicians working for the NHS.

In December 2019, prior to the pandemic, there were the equivalent of 57,000 full-time junior doctors, representing 48.7% of the workforce.

The Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust had 495 junior doctors at this point, or 53.3% of all doctors working at the organisation.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the walkouts have ‘clearly been timed to have an impact on patients’, given increased pressures on the health service after the Easter break.

‘We recognise junior doctors have been under significant pressure, particularly from the pandemic, and we want to work with them to find a fair and reasonable settlement,’ he added.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director for the NHS in England, said the strike action – which began at 7am on Tuesday and will continue until Saturday morning – will cause ‘unparalleled’ upheaval and will be the ‘most disruptive in NHS history’.

Dr Sumi Manirajan, deputy co-chairwoman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said: ‘I can’t guarantee that no lives will be put at risk but what I can guarantee is that 500 patients are dying (every week) waiting for care at the moment.’

She said the union will guarantee emergency and essential care over the strike period, adding that ‘lives are being put at risk every single week’ as things stand.

There has been a picket line outside QA Hospital in Cosham all week. On Tuesday, Wessex region BMA representative and junior doctor Joshua Morton told The News: ‘We’re on strike because junior doctors over the last 15 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 15 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.

‘Everyone who has passed by has stopped to say that they support us. People have been bringing us snacks and drinks which we really appreciate.’

*Junior doctors must suspend all strikes for the Government to consider entering talks facilitated by conciliation service Acas in a bid to end the bitter pay dispute, a minister has suggested.

Acas has said it is ‘well prepared and ready to help’ and the BMA is urging ministers to get round the table to try to break the deadlock between the parties.

But Home Office minister Chris Philp said the junior doctors committee should halt ‘extremely damaging strike action’ in order for discussions take place.

Touring broadcast studios on Thursday, the minister suggested Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s door would be ‘open’ – as long as the BMA contacts him directly and offers to bring industrial action to a standstill in the interim.

He was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Why not just say yes, in a strike where lives are at stake… yes to Acas? It’s not something that involves you having to agree to anything. It’s a process, it’s a discussion.’

Mr Philp replied: ‘Well, that’s a very recent change in position. That wasn’t the junior doctors committee’s position until very, very recently. I think it would also be constructive if they would just suspend the strikes while talks take place.

‘If they’re willing to do that, then I think the Secretary of State’s door is very much open.’