'A doctor working now is not worth less than a doctor working in 2008' –  say Chesterfield junior doctors as they join national strikes over pay

Half a million workers will be on strike this week, calling for pay justice in the cost of living crisis.

Junior doctors, who are part of The British Medical Association (BMA), have walked out at 7 am this morning asking for a 35% increase in their wages.

The British Medical Association calls this a pay restoration, rather than a pay rise, after cuts of 26% – if inflation between 2008 and 2023 is taken into account.

The strike, which involves both emergency and planned care workers will run until 6.59 am on Thursday, March 16.

Junior doctors make up 45% of the medical workforce and two-thirds of them are members of the BMA union.

As senior doctors will be required to cover them in emergency care, such as A&E and intensive care, many planned appointments will be postponed.

Picket lines have been formed in Derbyshire this morning, including a protest in front of the Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

Vivienne Ferife, 25, a junior doctor and the BMA representative at the Royal Chesterfield Hospital, said: “ Since 2008 our pay has dropped significantly compared to inflation linked wages. Current rates for doctors delivering lifesaving interventions is as low as £14 per hour after decades of study, personal debt and sacrifice.

"Sadly, medicine is no longer an attractive career for talented young people to choose. It is gruelling long training and anti-social hours, frequent enforced relocation and often difficult experiences, often starting in young adulthood.

“Those already practising are opting to leave the NHS, either for better conditions and to feel valued for their highly skilled work, or to leave medicine completely. We are not asking for a pay rise, we are asking for pay restoration, because a doctor working now is not worth less than a doctor working in 2008.

“To keep our patients safe and well cared for we need to improve recruitment and retention, and reverse the understaffed and stretched resources in the NHS. This strike is a part of campaigning for that process.”

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said he valued the hard work of junior doctors and that he wanted unions to "come to the negotiating table" to enter formal talks.