Doctors are reacting with anger to the Government’s announcement of a pay award which is less than inflation.  

The BMA believes that whilst the Government has accepted the independent pay review body - the DDRB - recommendation for a pay uplift of just 4% for most doctors, both have failed to redress historic losses of pay. With average earnings growth sitting at almost 6%, all public sector workers deserve better. Resident doctors will receive an extra £750 on top of the 4%, but this still slows the progress, made last year, towards full pay restoration and does little to address the historic pay erosion they’ve suffered for over 15 years.

The chair of BMA council, Professor Philip Banfield, says Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, must now come to the negotiating table and start talking if he wants to head off an escalation in disputes and reverse the workforce crisis.

He said: 

“The Health Secretary can avert strike action by negotiating with us and agreeing a route to full pay restoration. As it stands, resident doctors are vindicated for their decision to announce a ballot for industrial action opening later this month, because Mr Streeting is not, so far, committing to meaningfully restoring their pay. The BMA’s resident doctors committee’s response to this is clear: the only path that will avoid strike action is the one that leads doctors to full pay restoration.  

“Today’s announcement feels like the positive rhetoric we’d heard from ministers is nothing more than that. Accepting a woefully inadequate DDRB recommendation demonstrates their lack of commitment to restoring doctors’ lost pay. After hard-won reforms to the pay review process from consultants in their pay deal last year, they’ll be appalled to see that the DDRB has again recommended pay rises that fail to acknowledge the true value of the skills and unique expertise of doctors in a global market. This sends a clear message to the profession: we do not need you, we do not want to keep you, and we do not value the huge efforts you go to looking after patients every day.

"Ministers are keen to laud their success in bringing down waiting lists, something that is purely down to dedicated doctors and their colleagues, but this derisory pay award risks undermining this progress completely. 4% is below the rate of the Retail Price Index inflation – the measure of inflation that reflects real life costs like housing and food – and this means on the current trajectory, most consultants in England will never see their pay fully restored to where it should be, in their working lives.

“Specialist, associate specialist, and specialty doctors (SAS doctors) – often the backbone and unsung heroes of the NHS – will too be bitterly disappointed. Both consultants and SAS doctors in England are now left with no choice but to also re-enter dispute, and as a first step reinstate their rate cards – BMA-set rates of pay for extra-contractual work. 

“GP practices are facing an absurd situation where a significant portion of new funding from the Government - at least £187m - will be spent on increased National Insurance tax and National and Minimum living wages. This means a large amount of new funding is going straight back to the Treasury, not leaving enough to uplift practice staff salaries, let alone recruit more GPs. We are seeing GPs unable to get a job as patients are desperate to see a family doctor.  

“Salaried GPs, who make up more than half of the family doctors working in practices in England, have experienced similar pay erosion to hospital doctors and today’s announcement does nothing to address their pay issues. This continued failure to adequately fund general practice is not only central to why the NHS remains in such a mess, but any meaningful recovery simply won’t happen until we do. 

“Doctors’ pay is still around a quarter less than it was in real-terms 16 years ago and today’s ‘award’ delays pay restoration even more, without a government plan or reassurance to correct this erosion of what a doctor is worth. 

"The DDRB has failed doctors. If this is the best it can do, the Government needs to think again and now is the time to sit down with the profession to get the NHS and patients in all four nations from sickness into health through paying staff what they are worth.

“No one wants a return to scenes of doctors on picket lines – we’d rather be in hospitals, in GP practices or in the community seeing patients, improving the health of the public – but today’s actions from the Government have sadly made this look far more likely.” 

 

Notes to editors

The BMA is a professional association and trade union representing and negotiating on behalf of all doctors in the UK. A leading voice advocating for outstanding health care and a healthy population. An association providing members with excellent individual services and support throughout their lives.