This time four years ago, every Thursday, we were urged by the Westminster Government to stand outside and clap for our NHS staff during the pandemic.
But no sooner has the threat of coronavirus waned before the Conservatives developed a severe case of political amnesia. They forgot the worth of those doctors and staff who put their lives on the line during the pandemic.
And that forgetfulness turned into meanness too, refusing to offer those staff a pay increase that reflected their importance.
There is something inherently wrong in a medical system when the pay of a Junior Doctor is on par with a barista. And when those levels of pay mean those doctors are struggling to pay off the student loans that enabled them to graduate - to jobs where their worth dispensing medical care is the same as dispensing a soy latte - it’s simply unforgivable.
For long months now, the people of this United Kingdom have endured industrial unrest as NHS staff rightly campaigned for better wages. Who among us, who worked in a job on 12-hour rotating shifts, in the pressure cooker of an emergency ward, would not take to the picket line if take-home pay amounted to £10 an hour?
The election of a Labour Government in July has changed that. In England at least. There, doctors and nurses have been offered pay rises that satisfy their demands and are accepted back-dated pay deals.
But in Wales, the situation remains difficult.
It is hard to argue with the the logic offered by Dr Phil White, the Deputy chair of the BMA’s Welsh Council, who said that “doctors in Wales, keenly await the response of the Welsh Government and “rightly anticipate” that the rise “will also be honoured in Wales.”
“For too long doctors’ sacrifices have been taken for granted with real terms cuts in the form of years of below inflation uplifts, and this left doctors with no other choice but to vote for, and in some cases take, industrial action over their pay earlier this year,” he said.
How true.
So, Labour in Cardiff, how about doing the right thing. Soy latte anyone?