A 'huge step forward' in the battle for fair pay

Oba Babs-Osibodu knows his timing was fortunate.

Things were already shifting when he and Peter Fahey were elected to co-chair the BMA Welsh resident doctors committee in August 2023. People were starting to believe change was needed, even if they didn’t think it was possible.

An overwhelming strike mandate from resident doctors in Wales in December – with 98 per cent voting in favour – confirmed a movement was growing. Further proof, if it were needed, came the following month when hundreds gathered at a demo outside the Senedd in Cardiff during the first strike.

There were some naysayers, recalls radiology registrar Dr Babs-Osibodu: generally, ‘slightly more senior doctors’ who said change wasn’t possible in Wales.

‘I distinctly remember in the early days, even before I was elected as co-chair, people telling me: “It just can't be done in Wales, the way devolution works. Why are you bothering?”

‘But myself and a few others really believed pushing for full pay restoration was the right thing to do. That day at the Senedd rally shifted a lot of people's perspective. They suddenly realised: “It's not just me. There are hundreds of others feeling the same, willing to do the same.”’

After three rounds of strike action, and robust pay negotiations with the Welsh Government, resident doctors in Wales voted unanimously in June to accept the offer of a 12.4 per cent uplift for 2023/24.

It was not the full pay restoration they’re still seeking but it represented ‘a huge step forward’ and a ‘huge achievement’, Dr Babs-Osibodu says – not just for the WRDC but for resident doctors across Wales.

Among the positive commitments the Welsh Government has made subsequently, it has accepted the recommendation of the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration for 2024/25, to uplift pay by 6 per cent plus £1,000. This means an overall uplift of between 7.6 per cent and 9.3 per cent to resident doctor pay in Wales for 2024/25.

If Dr Babs-Osibodu, who was re-elected WRDC chair this autumn, had hoped for a respite after an exacting few months, he would be disappointed. WRDC spent the second half of last year consulting consulting Welsh members on any issues they would want to see addressed in a new contract.

Contract reform for resident doctors in Wales has long been contentious, although most agree the current contract is outdated. In a 2022 referendum, a reformed contract proposal was soundly rejected by 64 per cent of voters.

Dr Babs-Osibodu was not involved in the previous consultation and can only speculate about why the subsequent contract proposal failed.

Yet he knows WRDC cannot presume to know what doctors want from a new contract (although he is pretty sure pay, rotas and working hours will feature highly). Nor should it presume negotiations will be any easier just because the same political party is in government in Westminster and Cardiff.

‘I think the lesson that's been learned is the need to keep doctors involved from start to finish and use every form of engagement we can. If you don't go out of your way to make sure you're reaching as many doctors as you can, you're going to have skewed results.’

He is keen to review contracts in other parts of the UK and abroad, in a bid to ensure Wales is a ‘desirable destination for doctors to want to come to – and stay’. And he would like to see greater collaboration and coordination between BMA campaigns across the four UK nations ‘so we’re firing on all cylinders’.

Dr Babs-Osibodu would also like to get back into running and football – but the next few months will be brisk.

The committee chair role has been a steep learning curve and something of a surprise in terms of the ‘sheer hours’ it entails.

He has had to learn to sit with the sense that nothing is ever finished, ‘everything is an ongoing process’.

He has had to take criticism, too – mostly from other doctors and people passing the picket line – and wrestled with concerns about the repercussions of strike action for patients and colleagues.

However, he has never doubted striking was the right thing to do ‘because the situation was untenable’.

More than anything, Dr Babs-Osibodu has realised the buck stops with him – and not just in the sense of the role’s responsibilities.

He admits he had qualms about standing for election, that some friends and family tried to dissuade him. But what finally convinced him was a feeling that, if he wanted change, he had to step up.

The real lightbulb moment came soon after he was elected, at a meeting in Cardiff when only two others turned up.

‘From that moment, everything changed,’ he says. ‘Because then I realised if I really wanted to succeed, I had to be the one going around the wards, putting up posters, striking up conversations.

‘Anyone who works in the NHS will tell you there is so many things wrong and a lot of these things persist because no one takes responsibility. No one says, “I'm going to be the one to fix it” – even simple things, like a printer not working [or] a poster being out of date.

‘In a lot of situations, the limiting factor isn't external: it is us. If we do want things to improve in the NHS, we have to be the ones to fight for it.’

(Image credit: Matthew Horwood)