British Medical Association says junior doctors struggling financially because of debt

By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - The head of the British Medical Association said Thursday that junior doctors are struggling financially because they are qualifying with £100,000 ($122.1 thousand) in debt.

Philip Banfield met British Health Secretary Steve Barclay to discuss a possible walkout in March by doctors who started a strike vote.

"What was constructive today was the willingness to listen and to get into the room and discuss what pay restoration may or may not look like. We have about six weeks to solve the problem. None of our doctors want to strike. They would prefer that this was resolved before we got into that situation," Banfield told reporters.

“The NHS is in real trouble if Health Minister Barclay does not stop the loss of staff in the NHS,” he said, adding there has been a 26% cut in salaries of junior doctors since 2008, approximately 45,000 general practitioners started voting for the strike.

General practitioners treat all common medical conditions and refer patients to hospitals and other services for urgent and specialist treatment.

If doctors decide to leave their jobs as a result of the vote, the strike will be "the second major strike of general practitioners after the strike in 2016," said Banfield.

The UK's health care system has always had problems but things have taken a turn for the worse amid the fallout of the Russia-Ukraine war, Brexit and a tightening cost-of-living crisis, according to reports by unions, universities, and independent think tanks.