MANY junior doctors are having to cut back on food and are struggling to heat their homes according to a survey by the British Medical Association (BMA) where more than 4,500 junior doctors participated.

The survey revealed that 29 per cent of junior doctors admitted to using their overdraft for consecutive months to pay bills and 27 per cent said they had not repaid their credit cards for successive months.

More than 45 per cent of junior doctors said they were struggling to afford their rent or mortgage and 50 per cent of those surveyed admitted heating and lighting their homes had been difficult in the past twelve months.  

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BMA Wessex regional junior doctor committee chair, Dr Ben Smith said: “It is unacceptable that many junior doctors working in the Wessex area will be constantly worrying about how to pay their bills and simply live, leading many to question their future in the NHS.  

“While pay has fallen off a cliff since 2008, mandatory costs, including exam, royal college, and license to practise fees, indemnity cover, and even hospital car parking, have increased.

“Junior doctors in this region have been going to extraordinary lengths to care for patients throughout the pandemic, but their contribution has been ignored and morale is plummeting as a result.”

A survey carried out earlier in 2022, found that 62 per cent of junior doctors said they were suffering from a mental health condition related to or made worse by their work or studies.

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Dr Smith added: “This Government needs to stop pretending that the pressures we’re seeing this winter are not a crisis of their making, stop ignoring our calls to meet with ministers and sit down and offer some reasonable practical solutions.

“As patients in these parts of the South of England continue to suffer enormous waits for treatment with what is now the largest ever backlog of care, we simply cannot afford to lose more valuable doctors here at a time when they are most needed.”

The NHS is short of more than 9,000 doctors in secondary care and the BMA is concerned that poor pay and difficult working conditions will lead to doctors leaving the NHS.

A decade of real terms pay cuts, and the recent pay announcements have led to morale falling further.