How much do junior doctors earn? UK salary explained
JUNIOR doctors in the NHS have finished six days of strike action in protest over pay.
This industrial action is thought to be the longest strike on NHS record.
How much do junior doctors earn?
The pay received by junior doctors is dependent on experience.
In 2023/24, the basic annual pay for a first-year junior doctor in England is £32,397.
This was after the government also announced a pay rise for junior doctors of 6% plus £1,250 each.
This began to be paid in autumn 2023, backdated to April.
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This works out at a basic pay of £15.53 per hour for most junior doctors.
However, the average junior doctor is not in their first year and therefore earns much more than basic pay.
According to the NHS Digital workforce and earnings data, the average full-time junior doctor in September 2023 earned a basic pay of £44,5000.
This figure also does not include any extra earnings, which comes from working extra hours.
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A doctor beginning their specialist training will earn between £40,257 to £53,398 a year.
The average salary is about £50,000 per year.
If you are a specialist grade doctor you'll earn a basic salary of £83,945 to £92,275.
Are junior doctors going on strike?
The British Medical Association (BMA) confirmed six days of strikes in January 2024, with services across England severely impacted.
The industrial action from January 3 to January 9 was the longest in the history of the NHS.
The strikes only involved junior doctors in England.
The strikes were designed to "save the NHS" from conditions that put patient care at risk.
In the summer of 2023, the government gave junior doctors an 8.8% pay rise with an extra 3% offered during the last round of negotiations towards the end of the year.
However, the BMA rejected the 3% offer because it does not make up for a real-term pay cut of nearly a quarter for junior doctors since 2008.
The BMA claims junior doctors in England were subjected to a 26.1% real terms pay cut between 2008 and 2022.
With 6.4 million patients on the waiting list for treatment, the union said staff are suffering burnout and leaving the profession altogether.
During the strike, more than 100,000 appointments and operations are expected to have been cancelled.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins called junior doctors “unreasonable” for downing tools at the worst time of year.
Speaking in the House of Commons today she said the BMA accepted only two out of 40 hospital requests for doctors to come off picket lines to keep patients safe.
Ms Atkins said: “Work doesn’t stop when the strikes stop.
“NHS staff will begin turning their attention to recovering from the impact of industrial action.
“The junior doctor committee’s choice to strike at this time of year means that this work must now be done under additional pressure as staff move to catch up as well as tackling the impact of cold weather, Covid, flu and norovirus.”
According to the Mirror, the junior doctors' committee said it is finalising plans to reballot in the next few weeks to extend its strike mandate which expires on February 29.
How do I become a junior doctor?
A junior doctor is a qualified doctor in clinical training who works under the supervision of a senior doctor.
For any person wanting to become a doctor, the first step is to study medicine at undergraduate level.
After completing the studies in medicine, they then move on to two years of integrated training.
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These are known as Foundation Year One and Foundation Year Two.
You must have completed the two-year programme of general training to practise as a doctor in the UK.