Junior doctors are on strike all across Wales. They argue their pay has been eroded year on year, and want an improvement on their current pay packet. They say that junior doctors now earn 30 percent less than they did in 2008, and want a better deal than has been offered, but the welsh government say there simply aren’t the funds.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 What do we want?
00:01 - Fair pay!
00:02 - When do we want it?
00:03 - Now!
00:04 Well, my hope is that Welsh Government see sense.
00:06 You know, if they come to the table with a credible offer,
00:08 we'll haul off the strikes today.
00:10 But I have full confidence in these doctors.
00:13 They know their worth.
00:14 They're willing to stick this out for as long as it takes.
00:16 You know, it's actually mixed emotions today.
00:18 I'm really grateful to everyone who's turned out.
00:20 You know, unbelievable levels of unity.
00:23 But, you know, we don't really want to be here.
00:25 We'd much rather be in work.
00:27 We want to be treating patients, as we usually do.
00:29 But unfortunately, this offer of 5%,
00:32 you know, 29.6% pay cut over the last 15 years,
00:35 and doctors earning £13.65, is unacceptable.
00:39 That's why we're all out here.
00:41 - Ober says that he and others in the same boat as him
00:43 work tirelessly in their jobs.
00:45 Being a junior doctor also comes with added costs,
00:48 like having to move around to different hospitals,
00:50 pay for exams, and he believes they are being hard done by.
00:53 - Honestly, it is endless.
00:55 And that's the case for not just the doctors,
00:57 but for all NHS staff, really.
00:59 You know, we work nights, we work 70-hour weeks,
01:01 often longer than that.
01:03 We face traumatic situations.
01:05 Often, you know, we see people die right in front of us,
01:08 and we have to, you know, pull our socks up and keep carrying on.
01:11 But right now, with the service the way it is,
01:14 we can't deliver the level of health care that we want to.
01:16 We're just being sacrificed, essentially, for the system.
01:19 - A number of Plaid Cymru Senedd members
01:21 joined the junior doctors today,
01:23 and Malbarn Ap Grinfod, Plaid's health spokesperson,
01:25 says that it is of key importance to the NHS in Wales
01:28 that these doctors are paid fairly,
01:30 or we could risk losing huge numbers of trained professionals
01:33 to other, more well-paying countries.
01:35 - Their pay is now about 30% less than what it was back in 2008.
01:40 And the Welsh Government promised a pay restoration for them,
01:43 but instead they've offered them a derisory 5% increase,
01:46 which is less than what doctors have been paid in England and in Scotland.
01:50 We're already seeing doctors leaving Wales
01:52 and going to Australia and New Zealand and elsewhere.
01:55 If doctors aren't recompensed properly,
01:57 if they're not paid what they deserve,
01:59 then we'll see more doctors leave Wales,
02:02 and that will be an absolute crisis for health care in Wales.
02:06 - The First Minister, though, says that it's not as simple
02:08 as adding more money due to issues from funding from Westminster,
02:11 and it would mean removing funding from other important areas.
02:15 - Of course we want to see public servants in Wales
02:19 paid properly for the work that they do,
02:22 but the offer that we have made is right at the limit
02:26 of the funding that we have for this purpose.
02:29 And it is just an act of irresponsibility
02:33 for members to get on their feet in this chamber
02:36 and to say to me, "More money for this, more money for that,
02:40 "more money for something else," and never, not once,
02:44 to think that they have any responsibility
02:46 to suggest where that money should come from.
02:49 - These hundreds of junior doctors here today
02:52 say they will not give up the fight, and they know their worth.
02:55 The Welsh Government say there's nowhere to go in terms of funding,
02:58 so something has got to give.
03:00 James Beach Watkins, reporting from the Centre.
03:02 Pay the bills!
03:03 Cops don't pay the bills!