Junior doctors make up half of medics at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Trust – as strike takes place across England

This week, junior doctors are striking over poor pay and working conditions – with the British Medical Association, a union for medical professionals, saying junior doctors have suffered a 26% real-terms cut to their pay since 2008-09.

Figures from NHS England show there were the equivalent of 344 full-time junior doctors working at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as of December – 49.3% of the 697 doctors working at the trust.

Across England there were 66,000 junior doctors working for hospital and community health services as of December 2022, making up 49.9% of all clinicians.

A strike organised by the BMA – which represents around 50,000 junior doctors – is set to last 96 hours, ending on Saturday April 15.

Figures for the number striking by NHS Trust were not available.

Any doctor below consultant level is referred to as 'junior', meaning junior doctors encompass doctors just starting in the NHS and those who have been training for many years for specialist positions.

They receive a wide range of salaries, with 'Foundation Year 1 doctors' – the most junior category – starting on £14.09 an hour, or around £29,000 a year.

Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Trust has 32 such doctors working at the trust at this point, alongside a further 28 second year foundation doctors.

The number of junior doctors has been increasing across England over the past decade as part of a wider uptick in clinicians working for the NHS.

In December 2019, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, there were the equivalent of 57,000 full-time junior doctors, representing 48.7% of the workforce.

Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Trust had 254 junior doctors at this point, or 43.2% of all doctors working at the organisation.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the walkouts have “clearly been timed to have an impact on patients”, given increased pressures on the health service after the Easter break.

“We recognise junior doctors have been under significant pressure, particularly from the pandemic, and we want to work with them to find a fair and reasonable settlement,” he added.