My decision to leave is driven by financial and personal reasons. More than anything, I’m tired and have little more left to give to the NHS.

I am sure the comments section will be littered with people telling me that, as a consultant, I am well paid and should be grateful for the job. No doubt there will be people who berate me for treating a noble calling as a J-O-B and not being more altruistic.

But I suspect any of my colleagues who read this will be cheering me on and wishing they could join me on the flight.

. Read the full piece here

The NHS needs to realise that its staff is its greatest asset

“The money is there to spend when it needs to be spent … the claims about £350 million a week from Brexit, just TWO WEEKS of that would be enough to restore doctors pay”

These are the UK coronavirus stories you need to know about today.

Latest on Jabs vs Variants

The Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines were less effective against symptomatic COVID-19 when people were exposed to the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 compared with the Alpha variant, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

After two doses:

• Pfizer/BioNTech was 93.7% effective against Alpha, and 88% against Delta
• Oxford/AstraZeneca was 74.5% effective against Alpha, and 67% against Delta

“The fact [that] there is still notable effectiveness is encouraging. However, complacency is not warranted, since the virus will continue to cause at least mild disease even in some [of] those vaccinated with two doses,” Stephen Evans, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine told Medscape Medical News.

Pay Strike?

There’s been more reaction to the 3% NHS pay rise for England and Wales that was announced yesterday evening. It was said to be in recognition of “extraordinary” pandemic efforts.

Doctors’ Association UK said it was “callous” to exclude junior doctors from the increase.

Chair, Dr Jenny Vaughan, said: “Any improvement on the derisory 1% previously offered to NHS workers is welcomed, but 3% barely takes the edge off the erosion of doctors’ pay over two decades. Doctors in the NHS have suffered a 30% pay cut in real terms, and after inflation this ‘pay rise’ will ultimately be a pay freeze. DAUK’s campaign ‘fair say for fair pay’ demonstrated the extremes staff have been put through during the pandemic – the effects of which are only starting to be realised.

Read the full article here.

Thousands of doctors have condemned the government’s “shambolic and derisory” 3 per cent pay rise offer to NHS staff in England, threatening industrial action as Covid hospitalisations soar.

Lobbying organisation The Doctors’ Assocation (DAUK) said the 3 per cent offered “does not come close to what staff deserve” and was an “insult” from the government when the NHS has been immensely challenged by the pandemic.

DAUK also said the pay offer represents a pay cut in real terms, as inflation this year is estimated at 3.7 per cent.

The pay rise covers nurses, paramedics, consultants, dentists and salaried GPs. But crucially, it does not cover England’s 61,000 junior doctors – who make up more than 50 per cent of doctors in the NHS.

Junior doctors are three quarters of the way through a separate four-year deal that gives them 2 per cent pay rises each year, but their exclusion from the 3 per cent rise was “callous in view of the large number of doctors in training who have worked tirelessly through the pandemic,” the DAUK said in a statement.

Many have been called away from their area of expertise and had to cover rota gaps due to continuous under-staffing – especially during the ongoing “pingdemic”.

One junior doctor told City A.M that the pay rise “forgot everyone who’s had their training disrupted during the pandemic or been called up early from medical school.”

But asked if the pay row would risk a repeat of the junior doctor strikes in 2015 and 2016, they said: “It’s not like the last strike, as there’s an ongoing pandemic now.”

Read the full article here.

Having worked under extreme pressure for the last year, should the Government’s pay rise for NHS staff not recognise this?

See the interview here

“The NHS could not function without its foreign born workers. Around 169,000 people, or 13% of the workforce was born outside of the UK.”

Radio 4 interviewed DAUK’s Dr Pushpo Hossain on NHS Overseas Workers Day last Friday:

Would you like to continue working in the nhs?

“I really love working for the NHS and I would like to call it my home. But unfortunately it is our fate as an international health care worker, we are on temporary visas and cannot obtain permanent residency…we have to be on temporary visas for five years before we can apply for the Indefinite Leave to Remain, which also comes with an exuberant fee of around £3000 per applicant.”

Will your salary be affected by this proposed 1% pay increase? 

“To be honest, it feels very, very insulting…for some of us [the 1% pay increase does not even cover] the £3000 that is required for the Indefinite Leave to Remain application. So how are we being recognized? How is this being fair to all these international health care workers…we have put our lives on the line and is this how they want to reward us?”

The Prime Minister has previously told NHS staff “We owe you more than words can say” Now he must back up his rhetoric with action

Dr Kaveri Jalundhwala-Vice Chair DAUK

Read the article online here