A doctor working for the NHS has shared a picture of his payslip to show why medics are walking out in a four-day strike.
Junior doctors across England have swapped hospital appointments and patient check-ups for picket lines today (11 April) in the strike over pay, which is set to continue until Saturday morning.
Approximately 350,000 appointments, including planned operations, are expected to be cancelled as a result of the strikes, but the British Medical Association (BMA) stands firm that the doctors deserve better pay.
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Among those taking part in the strikes this week is doctor Dean, who has been in the profession for more than two years.
Dean took to Twitter to defend the walkout, by sharing a picture of the NHS payslip he received 'right at the very end of [his] second year as a doctor', which fell in July 2022.
Before tax, Dean earned £2,834, equating to a wage of approximately £34,000. Once tax, his pension and his student loans had been factored in, the doctor had a takehome pay of £1823.50, and his outgoings didn't stop there.
In a follow-up tweet, the doctor claimed: "This is the same month I paid £565 for exams that at the time gave me extra points for application. But after sitting exams and passing both, the college decided to remove the extra points."
"I receive no reimbursement for these, despite the fact they are compulsory fir [sic] progression," Dean said.
Dean has also hit back at arguments suggesting junior doctors aren't as well trained as more senior members of staff, and therefore are less valuable, by saying: "Our level of responsibility and from day one is huge.
"The doctor who [sees] you in the emergency department, the doctor that does your surgery, the doctor who comes to see you in the middle of the night, the doctor thay [sic] delivers your baby. Most are junior doctors."
The BMA, which is the trade union and professional body for doctors and medical students in the UK, has also been working to highlight pay issues with adverts showing how much junior doctors are paid for their roles in surgical procedures.
To remove an appendix, which is a 60-minute procedure, the BMA said a doctor with 10 years' experience could expect to be paid £28. A doctor with seven years experience would receive £24.45, while a doctor with one year's experience would receive just £14.09.
The union has also estimated that junior doctors are being paid 26 percent less now than they were 15 years ago.
Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, the BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs, addressed the payment for the appendix procedure as they commented: “It is appalling that this government feels that paying three junior doctors as little as £66.55 between them for work of this value is justified.
"This is highly skilled work requiring years of study and intensive training in a high-pressure environment where the job can be a matter of life and death.
“Why then has the government allowed junior doctor pay to be cut in real terms by over a quarter in the last 15 years?”
The chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, told the BBC today that the strike would cause 'risks to patients'.
LADbible has reached out to the NHS for comment.
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Emily Brown