I’m a junior doctor – here’s why I’m leaving Britain and the NHS to join my friends working in Australia

A newly qualified doctor is leaving the NHS to move to Australia for ‘better pay and support’.

Jack Tagg, 23, worked as a junior doctor in two hospitals in Wales and said ‘morale within the NHS is at rock bottom’. He wants to join his friends down under, where he says “the pressure doesn’t feel as suffocating as it does in the NHS.”

Mr Tagg said wages, support and working hours were all better in other parts of the world and that the NHS could only be kept going through ‘goodwill’.

Speaking to Welsh current affairs program Y Byd ar Bedwar, he said: ‘It’s never an easy decision to take over completely and move to the other side of the world, but I think this just shows how drastically the situation in the NHS has been. got.

‘If I am the only junior for 40 patients, I physically cannot do all the jobs in the time that I have a contract.’

He added: ‘There simply aren’t enough staff, the NHS is literally running on goodwill at the moment.

‘If you didn’t let the staff stay for half an hour, an extra hour every day, on top of their contractual hours, so for free, then I mean you would make even less impact.

‘Because I am paid less than £14 as someone who ultimately has their life on the line and has to do all these complex, stressful and demanding tasks, those pay levels are simply derogatory, and they are really off-putting to prospective students.’

First year junior doctors in Wales earn a basic annual salary of approximately £29,895.

A Freedom of Information request to the General Medical Council revealed that 729 doctors had left the Welsh NHS in the past five years.

In England, first-year trainee doctors earn £32,398 – around £15.58 per hour – after the pay rise awarded this year.

An analysis by FullFact last year found that junior doctors in England earn between £20 and 30 an hour if they choose to work overtime and night or weekend shifts.

After around ten years as a junior doctor – during which their pay rises to £63,000 – medics can become consultants, earning up to £126,000 basic salary for a 40-hour working week.

At this point, they may also choose to work additional hours and take on management or teaching responsibilities to further increase their wages.

Jack Tagg wants to join his friends down under, where he says ‘the pressure doesn’t feel as suffocating as it does in the NHS’

Dr. Lloyd Evans, who now lives in Perth, Western Australia, said: ‘Here I get paid almost three times as much as an employed GP in Britain.

“I feel like I can just provide the service I’ve trained so hard for.”

He added: “I feel like my patients appreciate me here, I feel like I’m valued within the system I work for.

‘That’s something the Welsh Government and the NHS really need to think about: making sure doctors feel valued and that they feel like they’re really getting rewarded for the sacrifices they make.’

Next month, trainee doctors will vote on strike action after the Welsh government offered a 5 percent pay rise – the lowest of any government in Britain.

If a strike does take place it will be the first strike of its kind in Wales.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: ‘We really appreciate the work that all doctors – and all healthcare staff – do every day.

‘Retaining staff is just as important as recruiting new staff. Our National Workforce Implementation Plan sets out actions to improve staff retention, including improving staff wellbeing, and continued investment in education and training.

Australian figures show that around half of British medics who apply in Australia are successful, with almost 950 landing jobs in 2021-2022, up from 1,800 who applied in the 2022 calendar year.

‘The number of doctors, including consultants, employed directly by the NHS in Wales has increased every year for the last eight years, and we now have a record number of doctors. In March this year there was a 21% increase in trainee doctors compared to March 2020.

‘The number of GPs in Wales has remained stable in recent years, while the number of GPs in training has increased substantially.

‘While we recognize that NHS Wales doctors may be disappointed with pay this year, this is the most difficult financial situation we have faced since devolution.

‘We will work with employers and trade unions to create the working environment and conditions that our NHS workers deserve and need to continue to provide high-quality care to the people of Wales.’

You can watch Y Byd ar Bedwar on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer – available with English subtitles.