Hundreds of junior doctors protest outside the Senedd

The second day of junior doctors’ strikes in Wales is underway with the 72-hour-long walkout set to continue to cause disruption until 18 January.

Hundreds of doctors will gather outside the Senedd at midday to protest working conditions and "eroding" pay.

Dr Hannah Wise, 27, studied medicine at Cardiff University and has been qualified for three years. She spends her time working at both the Royal Gwent and Grange Hospital.

Speaking to ITV Wales, she said: "We used to have 'winter pressures' and now that's just 'pressure'. Every day we are on minimal staffing and we constantly have to see patients who have waited eight, even twelve hours in A&E.

"We don't have the resources. It's a very stressful environment to try to do your job every day."

"We used to have 'winter pressures' and now that's just 'pressure'." Credit: ITV Wales

A huge majority of junior doctors voted in favour of strike action for pay restoration with 65% of doctors in Wales voting and 98% backing a walkout.

The Welsh junior doctors committee decided to ballot members in August after being offered a 5% pay rise, the worst in the UK. Health is a devolved issue in Wales so responsibility for pay, waiting lists, and budgets falls to the Labour administration.

When referencing the 5% pay offer, one junior doctor told ITV Wales: "It’s a real slap in the face, we work so hard for everybody and then just to say you’re not worth what you should be paid, let alone going above and beyond, just what you should be paid and you’re not even worth that.”

According to the British Medical Association, junior doctors in Wales have experienced a pay cut of 29.6% in real terms over the last 15 years.

"If we see a continued erosion in our pay, more and more doctors are going to leave". Credit: ITV Wales

Dr Hannah Wise added: "No junior doctor wants to go on strike and it's a very difficult decision we have had to make. However, a necessary one."

She continued: "Out of all my friends at university, so many of them are in Australia at the moment. They're much happier, being paid more, they're more valued and in a better system.

"For me and other doctors, it is something that we're going to have to consider. Unless we do see some real progress and if we see a continued erosion in our pay, more and more doctors are going to leave".

Provisions have been put in place to support health boards across Wales according to Professor Meriel Jenney, medical director at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.

She said health boards are "prioritising urgent and emergency care", then focusing on time critical interventions and cancer services during the period of industrial action.“To keep our services as safe as possible, we made the incredibly difficult decision to cancel most elective and non-urgent appointments and surgeries scheduled to take place over the course of those three days," she said.

Much like the striking doctors, she said: "It is not a decision we have taken lightly."

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Health Minister Eluned Morgan said: "We are disappointed junior doctors have voted for industrial action, but we understand the strength of feeling among BMA members."

She added: "The pay award offer we have made is at the limits of the finances available to us and reflects the position reached with the other unions.

"We continue to press the UK Government to pass on the funding necessary to provide full and fair pay rises for public sector workers."