Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer today offered a route to pay justice for junior doctors embarking on another round of strikes in their long-running dispute.
Denyer said:
“The outgoing Conservative government should have come to an agreement with the junior doctors a long time ago. The fact it hasn’t underlines why the Conservatives can’t be trusted with the NHS.
“Unfortunately, Labour, on the brink of government, is offering no solutions either.
“Elected Greens will support the junior doctors’ call for pay justice. It’s foolish and irresponsible to continue to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in training staff and then paying them so poorly they leave the NHS.
“We need to value junior doctors – and all NHS staff – so they stay in the NHS and make it stronger.
“Pay justice is key to staff recruitment and retention, so we can restore the NHS to have it deliver for all of us who rely on it.”
According to the British Medical Association, it would cost £1.6bn to settle the junior doctors’ dispute.
The Green Party manifesto pledges £4.6bn, specifically to tackle pay injustice, including settling the junior doctors’ dispute and funding a workforce plan designed to recruit and retain staff across the NHS.
Denyer, who is speaking to junior doctors on the picket line in Bristol today, said:
“Greens believe passionately in the NHS. We are the only party being honest with the public that it’s going to cost money to nurse the NHS back to health after 14 years of Conservative damage.
“It costs taxpayers around £200,000 to put a doctor through medical school. Yet, when these talented and highly trained people graduate, we are losing them because the pay and conditions have been worsening for years. The BMA points out that junior doctors’ real-terms pay has been cut by more than a quarter since 2008
“Labour has simply abandoned its responsibility and is opening the door to ever greater privatisation.
“We need a different approach that attracts and keeps staff who are dedicated to a publicly-owned, publicly-funded NHS, free at the point of use.”