Junior doctors strike Peterborough: How much junior medics earn, strike end date and how many work in city

More than half of doctors at North West Anglia Trust, which oversees Peterborough City Hospital, are junior doctors, figures show – as a massive walk-out continues to take place this week.

Junior doctors in England are staging the final day of a four-day strike in an increasingly bitter dispute over their pay.

Conciliation will “improve things,” former chief executive of Acas John Taylor has said amid the Government’s refusal to enter mediated talks with striking junior doctors.

It comes as the British Medical Association, a union for medical professionals, has said junior doctors have suffered a 26% real-terms cut to their pay since 2008-09.

How many junior doctors work for the trust?

Figures from NHS England show there were the equivalent of 485 full-time junior doctors working at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust as of December – 53.5% of the 907 doctors working at the trust.

The trust also covers Hinchingbrooke Hospital and Stamford & Rutland Hospital and community clinics.

At Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust – which oversees The Cavell Centre in Peterborough and other countywide mental health services – had 61 full-time junior doctors working with them as of December – 35.2% of the 174 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.

Strikes will have taken place between 6.59am on Tuesday, April 11 and 6.59am on Saturday, April 15.

Figures for the number striking by NHS Trust were not available.

What is a junior doctor?

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.

North West Anglia Trust has 57 such doctors working at the trust at this point, alongside a further 56 second year foundation doctors.

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 coronavirus pandemic, there were the equivalent of 57,000 full-time junior doctors, representing 48.7% of the workforce.

North West Anglia Trust had 362 junior doctors at this point, or 48.7% of all doctors working at the organisation.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director for the NHS in England, said the strike action will cause “unparalleled” upheaval and will be the “most disruptive in NHS history”.

What has the trust said?

Michelle Cady, chief cperations officer at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, said plans had been put in place to ensure disruption was kept ‘to a minimum.

She said’: "Locally we meet regularly with the BMA via the Local Negotiating Committee and we are committed to working in partnership to prioritise safe patient care and to protect service delivery, where possible.

“Patients with an appointment planned during the period of action are being contacted directly if this means their appointment now needs to be rescheduled. We appreciate how disappointing this will be for anyone waiting for treatment or investigations and we are sorry to postpone arrangements. Patients who are not contacted in advance should attend their appointment as planned.

“Our emergency services will remain open, but we ask that you contact NHS 111 or NHS111 Online before coming to hospital, so that you can be directed to the most appropriate place for your care or treatment.”