Four in ten junior doctors plan to leave the NHS as soon as they can find another job, the British Medical Association has found, as the union vowed to press ahead with a ballot for strike action.
A survey of more than 4,500 junior doctors showed that a third are planning to leave the country in the next year to find work elsewhere, with many hoping to move to Australia.
More than eight in 10 said that the decline in real-term pay was behind their decision to leave the NHS, while a similar number cited deteriorating working conditions.
In a New Year address to BMA members, Professor Philip Banfield, Chair of Council, said the health service would not be able to cope if so many doctors left and called on members to “get organised”.
He said that a ballot for industrial action would go ahead on January 9.
'The situation is severe'
If passed, junior doctors would join nurses and ambulance drivers taking to the picket lines, creating more chaos for the health service.
Prof Banfield said: “The situation is severe. A third of junior doctors are planning to work in another country, four in 10 say that as soon as they can find another job they leave the NHS, the health service simply will not be able to cope.
“We won't stand by while our country gets sicker. We will not tolerate the chaos that we contend with every day at work or acquiesce to those looking to slash pay and drive down living standards.
“For decades the NHS was the envy of the world. We haven't given up on that. We haven't given up on the future where patients can expect the very best care where they don't need to worry about whether an ambulance will show up or if they will be left vulnerable in a hospital corridor.”
The BMA said that junior doctors had faced some of the steepest cuts to their pay of any public sector worker over the last fifteen years, with their pay falling by more than a quarter in real terms since 2008/09.
A recent survey by the BMA found that junior doctors are cutting back on buying food and heating their homes to help make ends meet.
The BMA is calling for increases of 26 per cent and the union has said it is likely doctors will strike unless their demands are met.
BMA 'on another planet'
However Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, has accused the BMA of being "on another planet" and told The Telegraph he would not hesitate to take on unions holding back the cause of patients, singling out the BMA for being "hostile" to the idea that patients should expect better standards.
In 2016, junior doctors took part in four waves of strike action with the first general strike across the NHS, ultimately including withdrawal of emergency cover
The strikes, which saw the cancellation of around 300,000 outpatient appointments, ended badly for the BMA with the resignation of the then chairman of junior doctors after union members rejected an amended deal.
But the BMA said if their calls were ignored increasing numbers of doctors would walk away from the NHS.
Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the BMA junior doctors committee, said: “These figures are hugely concerning. If our government doesn’t act now, it doesn’t take a genius to see where this will lead: an exodus of junior doctors to foreign countries, with the ones who stay in the NHS facing an ever-increasing workload - until they feel they have no option but to leave too or get burnt out.
“If the government wants ‘move to Australia’ to stay off the New Year’s resolution lists of junior doctors this year, it is going to have to start by reversing the 26 per cent real terms pay cut they have endured since 2008 – or at the very least start speaking with us and stop ignoring our repeated calls to address our pay.”