Capitalism is pushing us into a crisis of healthcare in Britain. Austerity in the NHS is having serious implications for the quality of patient care and the working conditions of those who look after us when we are sick. We publish here an interview with a junior doctor working in a central London hospital, which gives an insight into the situation facing the NHS today.
Capitalism in crisis is pushing us into a crisis of healthcare in Britain. Austerity in the NHS is having serious implications for the quality of patient care and the working conditions of those who look after us when we are sick. The interview below with a junior doctor working in a central London hospital gives an insight into the situation facing the NHS today.
What impact are the cuts to the NHS having on your ability to work as a doctor?
The impact is noticeable on a day-to-day basis. The hospital I work at is one of the better-off ones, financially speaking, but it is still tens of millions of pounds in debt this year. As a result the hospital is cutting staff costs wherever it can.
Last week I worked a twelve hour shift, towards the end of which I was asked to work another twelve hour shift immediately afterwards because the senior doctor who was supposed to be on duty had called in sick. I agreed to work for twenty-four hours straight, despite being underqualified to cover the work and completely exhausted, because if I hadn’t done it there was no one else who could.
To add insult to injury, the hospital has informed me that they won’t be paying me for the second half of my twenty-four hour shift. Instead they have said that I can take a day off. But all this means is that, if I do take that day off, my ward will be one doctor down for a day because there’s no way they will employ someone to cover me. I won’t take the day off because I don’t feel that’s fair, either to my fellow doctors or to the patients in my care.
This is one of the more shocking examples of the direct link between the squeeze on NHS funding by the government and a deterioration in the ability of doctors to do their jobs. But I know of many more examples where, directly or indirectly, a lack of resources has led to patient care being impacted.
How is this situation affecting morale amongst doctors?
Morale is low. We face an endless stream of attacks from Jeremy Hunt and the Tories, in the form of negative propaganda and cutbacks to the resources we need to do our work. Already a high number of doctors drop out of medicine during their training, after seeing what it’s like to work in the NHS. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that increases to up to half of trainees in the near future. This is such a waste of the resources that go into educating medical students.
Every person I speak to at work is angry with the government. Not a single doctor considers Jeremy Hunt’s proposals to change our working conditions to be acceptable. There is a certain level of demoralisation at what the government is doing, but there is also a great deal of anger.
Why do you think the Tories are attacking the NHS in this way?
I think they are starving the NHS of money in the hope that eventually doctors will turn around and say “actually, we do support privatisation after all”. If the state categorically refuses to invest, the only way to get the money we need to help our patients will be from the private sector. In the meantime heaping insults on NHS workers as lazy and incompetent helps their argument that the public sector is inefficient, paving the way for privatisation in the future. Stuck in the middle of all of this are the patients who face collapsing standards of care, but that doesn’t seem to concern the Tories at all.
How do you see your future in the NHS?
I will stick at it for the time being. I want to be a doctor to help people and do some good in the world. But I do also want to be able to live, and for that I need to be able to pay my rent, take the occasional holiday, and work decent hours. The way things are going at the moment I’m not sure working as an NHS doctor will allow me to do that. I don’t really want to work entirely in the private sector because I disagree with the concept of private healthcare, so it’s possible I’ll have to move on from medicine in a few years time. This isn’t something I want to do, but when you have the government against you what options are there?
Would you join a revolutionary organisation and fight the government with radical socialist policies?
If and when I’m not working twenty-four hour shifts I could get more involved with an organisation like Socialist Appeal. In the meantime, keep it up – I’m behind you all the way!
