Ozva AdminAn NHS doctor exposed the frustrations felt by staff in a prank Tik Tok claiming some could have more lucrative careers ‘stacking shelves at ASDA’.
The doctor, who has been in medicine for more than 20 years, seemed to strike a chord with her jaded co-workers across the UK when she called for better wages.
The viral video, in which @doc.dewdrop pretends to be on the phone listening to colleagues looking for new jobs in supermarkets, has amassed more than 435,000 views.
“Junior doctors earn £13/hour with years of training debt to pay off,” the doctor wrote in the caption. ‘Asda looks attractive. If we want to keep our doctors on the NHS, they need better wages.’
Commenters were quick to express their solidarity with TikTok, published in November, as some young doctors shared their own personal struggles to make ends meet.
‘Junior doctor here; consultant next year,’ wrote one. ‘Currently I can’t pay my electricity bill or buy new tires for my car. What a world we live in.’
Another health professional admitted: ‘You are not wrong! I’m a hemo/blood bank biomedical scientist and I’ll go, for just about anything. Almost a decade on the NHS and I’m done.
Elsewhere, a nurse revealed that her ‘£11 an hour’ rate makes her ‘check Indeed for Aldi or Co-op job opportunities’.
Other clips on @doc.dewdrop’s profile see her making videos about the confusion felt by many in the NHS
The doctor also creates content about career advice and advice for young doctors on her TikTok profile.
An NHS doctor laid bare the frustrations felt by staff in a teasing TikTok claiming some could have more lucrative careers “stacking shelves at ASDA”.
A fourth poster revealed: ‘Support the doctors. It is destroying the soul! I’m a nurse, but until my kids are in school full time, I can’t really afford to work as one…’
According to recruitment site Glassdoor, ASDA high-rack stackers can earn an average of £9 an hour. Meanwhile, according to Indeed, an Amazon warehouse worker in the UK can be paid around £14.78 an hour, rated by the recruiting center as “above the national average”.
Other clips on @doc.dewdrop’s profile show her making videos about the confusion felt by many in the NHS. The doctor also creates content about career advice and advice for young doctors.
It comes as thousands of young doctors are plotting to leave the NHS within the next year, as the damning survey results suggest, with unions warning that the mass exodus will leave the NHS “simply unable to cope”.
The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents 45,000 young doctors in England and has been described as ‘militant’, polled almost 4,000 members about whether they are interested in leaving the NHS.
Commenters were quick to express their solidarity, as some young doctors shared their own personal struggles to make ends meet.
Results reported last month show that four in 10 plan to leave the health service “as soon as they can find another job”, while a third plan to move abroad. The union blamed poor wages and working conditions as the reason behind the trend.
Meanwhile, the planned strikes by NHS nurses in England for next week will most likely go ahead after “very disappointing” discussions with the government.
Britain’s nursing union, the Royal College Nursing (RCN), has calculated that the chances of calling off two days of an impending labor strike are less than 50 percent.
The comments came as a number of unions met with ministers today for crucial talks in an ongoing dispute over pay and conditions.
Unite negotiator Onay Kasab said the government told the union they would have to “justify” a payment through productivity, calling it an “insult.”
But some union negotiators said the government’s demand that the one-time staff pay be equated with an increase in NHS productivity was “insulting”.
The discussions took place as the junior doctors began a vote on industrial action, threatening a 72-hour strike if their demands for a 26 percent pay increase are not met.
And a head of the British Medical Association (BMA) even warned that they could end up demanding even more than that.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay met union leaders, including those from unions representing multiple groups of staff such as Unite, GMB, Unison, as well as the dedicated nursing union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
Today’s talks with Health Secretary Steve Barclay have been widely criticized by unions for offering nothing that could prevent a strike.
Whitehall sources said Mr Barclay and the unions are trying to reach an agreement that would see next year’s wage deal retroactively dated to this January, rather than April as would normally be the case.
In theory, this would allow unions to tell their members they got something extra for this year’s wage deal and allow the government to save face by not having to renegotiate last year’s wage deal.
Sources say Barclay agreed to take the proposal to Treasury.
However, the Treasury blocked an earlier proposal by the Health Secretary to offer NHS unions a single payment for staff.
The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents 45,000 young doctors in England, polled almost 4,000 members about whether they want to leave the NHS. The results show that four in 10 plan to leave the health service ‘as soon as they can find another job’, while a third plan to move abroad. The union blamed poor wages and working conditions
But Unite claimed Barclay, who has refused to budge to push the recommendation of the independent NHS payment review body, had suggested a deal could be struck in exchange for greater efficiency in the health service.
Unite said the suggestion that a one-time payment reward could be made in exchange for increased productivity was “absolutely ridiculous.”
The BMA, which surveyed its junior medical members in November and December, asked to what extent they were willing to leave the NHS “as soon as they can find another job”. Forty percent agreed.
In response to a question about whether they planned to work as doctors in another country in the next year, a third of the group agreed. Australia was the top destination, with 42 percent of the cohort planning to move there. New Zealand (20 percent), the Middle East, Canada, and Europe excluding the UK (9 percent each) were also popular. One in 20 said they planned to go to the US.
When this group was asked why they were eager to leave, around eight in 10 blamed salary, specifically “wage erosion” over the past 15 years, their two per cent increase for 2022/23 and their salary level current. Some 83 percent also pointed to deteriorating working conditions.
The BMA said young doctors have faced “some of the steepest pay cuts of any public sector”, having fallen by 26 per cent in the last 15 years.
And his 2 percent raise this year equates to a 10 percent pay cut in real terms when “breakneck inflation” is factored in, he said.
Results from a separate BMA survey suggest that more than three-quarters of young doctors are cutting back on food shopping and heating for their homes to help make ends meet.
Doctors start at £29,400 in their first year of training, increasing to £58,400 in their final year. Those in London also get an additional £4,000 annual allowance.
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