Junior doctors make up more than half QA total
Simon Carter
More than half of doctors at the Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust are junior doctors, figures show – as a massive walk-out takes place this week.
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.
There were the equivalent of 20 full-time junior doctors working at Solent NHS Trust as of December – 15.7% of the 130 doctors working at a trust that includes the hospitals in Fareham and Petersfield.
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 fulltime junior doctors - 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. In December 2019, the Solent Trust had 22 junior doctors (17.5% of all doctors at the organisation).
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: ‘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.
‘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.’