Doctors in Wales have expressed their anger and disappointment following Welsh Government’s pay award announcement last month.

A record number of 1,937 doctors responded to the BMA Cymru pay survey, over treble the response rate of the previous year.

In the survey, doctors issued stark warnings that the NHS is ‘close to collapse,’ with an overwhelming number of respondents saying they were exhausted and burnt out.

79% of respondents said the pay award, which will see a below inflation uplift of just 4.5% for most doctors has further decreased morale.

Over half of the respondents said they are likely to leave the Welsh NHS as a result.

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Dr Peter Saul, a GP at Beech Avenue Practice felt that the below-inflation offer was the 'icing on the cake', he said: 

"You need a good salary structure to recruit new doctors, there are lots already leaving the profession and going overseas. 

"We've all got to realise that the country is in a bit of a crisis at the moment, inflation is very high. 

"A lot of people are fed up with the health care situation, they have high workloads and the health service is broken. 

"Offering lower than inflation rates of pay is the icing on the cake and could lead to people asking 'why am I doing this job?'. 

"The answer is, they're doing it for their patients, which is a powerful reason to keep working, but it is unjust for the Welsh Government to use that against them when it comes to making offers."

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Dr Iona Collins, Chair of the BMA’s Welsh Council, said: “Doctors work in the NHS because they believe in the NHS. Both working conditions and pay, however, keep challenging their decision to remain employed by the NHS.

“Doctors' take-home pay has reduced over several years, making the NHS an increasingly unattractive employer. To make matters worse, doctors are on the receiving end of complex pension tax bills, resulting in some doctors essentially working for free, and others finding out that they have lost money by going to work in first place.

“We are running out of time. Crisis after crisis in our NHS is making headline news, with the two root causes relating to medical staffing and medical resources.

“NHS Wales needs to take a good look at how it currently values its medical workforce and reconsider the proposed pay award accordingly."

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A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We have accepted the recommendations of NHS pay review bodies. In  announcing our pay award for the NHS workforce in Wales, we made clear that without additional funding from the UK Government, there are limits to how far we can go to address these concerns in Wales. We continue to press the UK Government to provide additional funding necessary for fair pay rises for public sector workers.

"We recognise the hard work of those working within the NHS, and we have seen an increase in the number of staff directly employed by the NHS since March 2021.”

BMA Cymru Wales will meet with the minister for health and social services, Eluned Morgan, next month to discuss the immediate need for action.