Junior doctors demand £4,800 for loss of free accommodation

Apr 26 2008 by Gregory Tindle, Western Mail

JUNIOR doctors in Wales are demanding a £4,800 pay rise to compensate for the withdrawal of free accommodation provided by hospitals in their first year on the wards.

The young doctors are furious at government plans to scrap their right to this traditional perk and attacked the move at their annual conference being held today.

Newly-qualified doctors say the free accommodation is worth about £400 a month – £4,800 a year – and claim this means they face a 20% cut in their pay as they are forced to find somewhere else to live.

This year the UK’s independent Doctors Pay Review Body recommended a 2.2% pay rise for the medics, but also put forward the withdrawal of the free accommodation – a recommendation that was accepted by the Government earlier this month.

A newly-qualified hospital doctor earns about £22,000 a year and, on average, will have run up students debts of £25,000 to complete their five years training. Around 350 new doctors qualify in Wales each year.

The disgruntled junior doctors have now lodged a series of emergency motions at their annual conference in London organised by the British Medical Association.

They are demanding the Government withdraw their plans to stop the free accommodation or pay a compensation package.

John Jenkins of the British Medical Association in Wales, said: “Junior doctors are angry at the refusal of the pay review body to recommend a compensation for first year junior doctors. Those who have lost their right to live on hospital premises free of charge from August 1.

“We’re urgently calling on the NHS to engage with us on an issue which is causing a huge amount of ill-feeling and anger. Hospital accommodation was often of a low standard but it was one of the few benefits of a junior doctor.

“Its removal comes at a time when medical students’ debts are growing and junior doctors’ pay packets are shrinking. It’s completely detrimental to the drive to encourage low-income groups into the medical profession.”

Final-year Cardiff medical student David Samuel, 23, from Pant, Merthyr Tydfil, said withdrawing free accommodation was a kick in the teeth for junior doctors.

“It won’t affect me as much as others, because I’ve got a job at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr, so I can live at home with my parents,” he said.

“But losing on-site accommodation will have a massive impact on many newly-qualified doctors when they are already struggling to pay off their student debts.

“Most of the accommodation is just a single room and not exactly the Ritz, but it does have benefits for junior doctors who are working overnight and on call. It’s somewhere they can grab a few quick minutes of rest.”

Ram Moorthy, of the BMA’s junior hospital doctors committee, said: “Hospital accommodation was one of the few benefits of working as a junior doctor.

“We requested that junior doctors should be compensated, but the Government refused.

“Students about to qualify to become junior doctors are furious and feel demoralised. They are really going to be struggling.

“You’re not going to attract people from deprived backgrounds, if they have to pay a huge amount for accommodation.”

A spokesman for the Welsh Assembly Government said: “Following consultation, it was decided the need for all first year trainees to live on site was unnecessary, either from a training or service perspective. Other doctors and staff groups are treated exactly the same. In the past many junior doctors did not take up the offer of free accommodation.

“However, we are encouraging trusts to maintain existing contractual arrangements with their junior doctors to provide accommodation at no charge until August 1 to help them complete their rotations. Trusts can also still provide accommodation for free beyond that if they choose.”