I’m a junior doctor – here’s why I’m leaving Britain and the NHS to join my friends working in Australia

A newly-qualified doctor is leaving the NHS to move to Australia for ‘better pay and support’.

Jack Tagg, 27, worked as a junior doctor in two Welsh hospitals and said ‘morale in the NHS is at an all-time low’. He is aiming to join his friends down under, where he says ‘pressures don’t feel as smothering as in the NHS’.   

Dr Tagg said pay, support and working hours were all better in other parts of the world and that the NHS was only kept running by ‘goodwill’.

Speaking to Welsh Language current affairs programme Y Byd ar Bedwar, he said: ‘It’s never an easy decision to up-sticks completely and move to the other side of the world, but I think that just shows how drastic the situation in the NHS has gotten.

‘When I’m the only junior for 40 patients, I physically can’t do all the jobs in the set amount of time I’m contracted.’

Dr Jack Tagg, 27, worked as a junior doctor in two Welsh hospitals but says he is heading Down Under for ‘better pay and support’

He added: ‘There’s just simply not enough staff, the NHS is literally running on goodwill at the minute. 

‘If you didn’t get staff staying half an hour, an hour extra each day on top of their contracted hours, so for free, I mean you’d be making even less of an impact.

‘Getting less than £14 as someone who’s ultimately got lives on their hands and has to do all of these complex, stressful and demanding tasks, those levels of pay are simply derogatory, and they are really off-putting to prospective students.’

First year junior doctors in Wales earn a basic annual salary of around £29,895. 

A freedom of information request to the General Medical Council revealed that 729 doctors left the Welsh NHS in the last five years.

In England, first year junior doctors earn £32,398 – around £15.58 an hour – following the pay rise which was granted this year. 

An analysis from FullFact last year found that junior doctors in England earn closer to £20-30-an-hour when opting to work overtime and take night or weekend shifts.

After around a decade as a junior doctor – during which their pay rises up to £63,000 – medics can become consultants, who earn up to £126,000 basic pay for a 40-hour week. 

At this point, they can also opt to work extra hours and take on management or education responsibilities to further boost their pay. 

Dr Jack Tagg is aiming to join his friends down under, where he says ‘pressures don’t feel as smothering as in the NHS’

Dr Lloyd Evans, who now lives in Perth, Western Australia, said: ‘Out here I’m paid almost three times as much as I would be as a salaried GP in the UK.

‘I feel out here that I’m just able to provide the service that I trained so hard to give.’

He added: ‘I feel my patients here value me, I feel I’m valued within the system I work for.

‘That’s something the Welsh Government and the NHS really have to think about, is making doctors feel valued and making them feel as if they’re really getting just reward for the sacrifices they make.’

Next month, junior doctors will vote on strike action after the Welsh Government offered a 5 per cent pay increase – the lowest offer of all governments in the UK.

If a walkout goes ahead it will be the first strike of its kind in Wales.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: ‘We greatly value the work all doctors – and all healthcare staff – do every day.

‘Retaining staff is equally as important as recruiting new staff. Our National Workforce Implementation Plan sets out actions to improve retention, including improving staff wellbeing, and continued investment in education and training.

Australian figures suggest roughly half of UK medics who apply for a job in Australia are successful, with nearly 950 getting in 2021-22 compared to the 1,800 who applied in the 2022 calendar year

‘The number of doctors, including consultants, directly employed by the NHS in Wales has increased every year for the last eight years, and we now have a record high number of doctors. In March this year, there was a 21 % increase in junior doctors compared with March 2020.

‘The number of GPs in Wales has remained stable in recent years, while the number of trainee GPs has been increasing substantially.

‘Whilst we acknowledge NHS Wales doctors may be disappointed in the pay award this year, this is the toughest financial situation we have faced since devolution.

‘We will work with employers and unions to deliver the working environment and conditions our NHS staff deserve and need to continue providing high-quality care for the people of Wales.’

You can watch Y Byd ar Bedwar on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer – available with English Subtitles.