NHS consultants reveal why they are downing stethoscopes to pick up placards

Consultants in England are taking industrial action for the first time in more than a decade. Here the PA news agency asks British Medical Association (BMA) members what has led them to strike action. – Consultant cardiologist Dr Andy Thornley At 47, Dr Thornley is already considering retirement. ‘Many of us are trying to work out ‘what is the earliest point we can get out of the NHS’?’ he said. ‘Why should we keep on working in a system that is basically failing? We are watching a system fail around us. ‘And that is because of underinvestment in the health service both in terms of the buildings and the structures but also underinvestment in people.’ Dr Thornley, who has been a consultant for around a decade, said he and his colleagues are taking to picket lines in protest over pay erosion and a lack of attention in retaining doctors. Without the brightest and the best working as NHS consultants the service will fail. ‘I don’t think that my colleagues and I are worth a third less than what we were paid in 2008,’ he said. ‘I think the big thing though is around retention of doctors. ‘At the moment, we’ve got colleagues who are leaving because of the pay – they can go elsewhere and earn more money – but also the conditions in the NHS, the pressures in the system, and the underinvestment over the last 13 years. ‘And the Government needs to do something about it. They need to invest in the workforce because without the brightest and the best working as NHS consultants the service will fail.’ Dr Thornley, form Middlesborough , added: ‘We don’t have the number of people that we should do to do the job that we’re trying to do. ‘For example, in the radiology department at my hospital, we are short probably somewhere around about 15 consultant radiologists, and so we’ve got less than half the workforce we should have to report scans and get important results for patients. And the pressure on individuals who do remain is huge. ‘I think part of the frustration is that the Government is denying that there are such big problems in the health service and essentially trying to fob us off with yet another pay cut. It’s just pushing the consultant body too far.’ – Consultant physician Dr Adam Molyneux  Dr Molyneux, a neurophysiologist who lives in Oxford, said the walkout by consultants aims to fight for the future of the service. The 43-year-old BMA member said consultant strike action is ‘a sign of absolute desperation’. ‘We are really at a tipping point of the survival of the NHS,’ he told PA. This is really about fighting for the future of the NHS as we know it. ‘I have personally seen colleagues leaving their post to go abroad, I have seen colleagues leaving their jobs to go into the purely private sector, this comes at a time when the NHS needs consultants who have trained for many, many years and are highly expert in their field. ‘We also have to make it an attractive role for those coming behind us. I don’t really think it is overstating it to say that this is really about fighting for the future of the NHS as we know it. ‘The consultant post has to be an attractive post, and I think that’s the crux of it, without the consultants there really is no NHS.’ Doctors face ‘constant pressure’ and are asked ‘every year’ to do more when they are ‘already over and above the limits of what people can do, often on the basis of goodwill and working many extra hours’, he said. ‘I think what’s happened is people have got to the end of their ability to maintain their own work-life balance and their own personal health. I think it’s about people starting to treat themselves more kindly, standing up for themselves and saying ‘we actually need more staff, we need to prevent people leaving and we need to recruit’.’ – Respiratory consultant Dr Neela Surange Dr Surange said consultant pay is not keeping pace with wages in other countries including Ireland and India. She told PA: ‘There has been a real decline in pay and work conditions and that has an impact on how we provide care. ‘We are not able to provide the good care to patients that we think they deserve.’ She said low pay compared with similar professions is causing difficulties in recruitment. ‘I know many, many people who are now finishing the training but they are looking elsewhere because jobs in many other countries, including the Republic of Ireland, are far more lucrative than UK consultant posts,’ she said. ‘Public health care services in Ireland pays more than the UK NHS, and other countries too: Gulf countries, Canada, Australia. I come from India and I know that the private sector in India pays a lot more and the work conditions there are far better than NHS. My colleagues and I never thought we would do this… but we think this is the only way left now to make something happen ‘The UK private sector pays also far more handsomely than the NHS. ‘From my personal perspective its not so much about money. But what worries me more is the young colleagues who are reaching the stage to apply for consultant posts… I see them struggling and see they don’t want to take consultant posts. ‘We have problems with recruiting people and retaining people.’ Dr Surange said doctors ‘go home feeling exhausted’ after work, adding: ‘I want to come back next day to be a good and pleasant doctor, not a tired and frustrated one. ‘My colleagues and I never thought we would do this and we don’t think this is the best way but we think this is the only way left now to make something happen.’ – Ear, nose and throat surgeon Rohit Verma Mr Verma, from Sheffield, said: ‘Nobody is taking this action lightly, there has been a tremendous amount of reflection and soul searching and working out how this fits with our professional values. ‘The work we’re doing is complicated, it’s high risk, it’s demanding, it’s stressful. ‘It takes a lot of time to get to that point in your career where you are allowed to become a consultant. ‘Over the last 10 years, our workload has certainly not dropped – I’d say the intensity is going up, the demands on the service are going up, the demand we need to meet in order to treat our patients with the latest medication, the latest technologies, the latest surgical techniques, it’s all ramping up. ‘And yet, over the last 10 years, our salary has remained static.’ He said the first thing consultants want is negotiation, ‘and that seems to be the stalling point at the moment’. Difficulties in recruitment mean existing staff are having to spread themselves ‘more thinly’, he said, adding: ‘There comes a point where that elasticity snaps.’ On junior doctors applying for consultant posts, he added: ‘If you start thinking, ‘Well, that job is no better paid that was 10 years ago, the whole world’s become more expensive. Why should I do that’?’ Mr Verma said that he hoped strikes planned for August could be halted by the Government entering talks with the union.