Adam Kay calls on the next government and junior doctors to ‘sit down and work it through’

The next government and junior doctors need to “sit down and work through it” to end the strikes, former doctor and author Adam Kay has urged.

Kay, who turned his collection of diary entries during his medical internship into a best-selling book, This Is Going To Hurt, which was later adapted into a TV miniseries, warned that doctors were leaving the UK in search of better prospects elsewhere.

“My support is absolutely there for every NHS worker to receive a living wage,” he told the PA news agency.

“I especially identify with younger doctors. When I worked in the NHS as a junior doctor, I earned over 30% more in real terms than doctors doing exactly the same job today.

“They were talking about pay equity or wage restoration, not a pay rise because it’s just unfair at a fundamental level.

“If I go on Twitter and support younger doctors, some anti-Twitter guy will respond and say, ‘Well, if you don’t like it, leave,’ and that’s the problem, because people leave.

“The NHS is not buildings, CT scanners and swimming pools, the NHS is the people who work there. And there will come a point where the NHS will no longer be able to function.

“I mean, the figures on the percentage of doctors who intend to leave in the next 12 months are incredibly worrying – something has to change.”

The comments come as junior doctors in England prepare to go on strike.

Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) will walk out on June 27 from 7:00 a.m. until July 2, a few days before the general elections.

Kay called on the next government to talk to trade unions and reach an agreement to end the dispute.

He told PA: “I hope that the changing of the guard, which will almost inevitably come in the coming weeks, will recognize that there is no alternative but to reach an agreement with junior doctors, whatever that agreement looks like.

“An agreement has to be reached, both sides have to sit down and work it out.”

However, he added that resolving the strikes is only “part” of the work that needs to be done to solve the problems facing the health service.

“It’s important,” he said. “Especially for my former colleagues working there.

“But I don’t think anyone can pretend that the NHS is in a good place at the moment. And I don’t think the last 14 years have been good for the NHS.

“We are looking at more promises at the moment. That’s why I don’t believe in anything until I see it happen. But from my point of view, it can’t be worse.”

The ruling comes as Kaya supports a 10-year, £40 million program to strengthen innovation in the NHS.

The NHS Charities Together initiative will initially invest in projects to tackle inequalities in access to healthcare for children and young people.

Kay said: “If you are born in one postcode today compared to another postcode, it has a huge impact on your life expectancy.

“I think there’s an 18-year difference between the richest and the poorest people in terms of when good health ends. And I find it just heartbreaking.

“It’s something that’s not unique in this country and it’s not unique in this day and age, but everyone has been talking about it forever and no one really had any idea about it.”

He added: “Unfortunately, investment in public health is one of the first things to emerge when belts are tightened. It is also the answer to the question of how to keep people away from primary and secondary care.”