BMA junior doctors committee chair, Dr Jeeves Wijesuriya
Announcing the news at the BMA annual representative meeting, a delighted BMA junior doctors committee chair Jeeves Wijesuriya said the deal represented a ‘clear answer’ from members.
‘I wanted to be able to come here today and tell you that we had succeeded. I’m pleased to say that I can. Colleagues… it is a yes,’ Dr Wijesuriya told a packed audience in Belfast, to strong applause.
‘It’s a yes to safety. To junior doctors no longer having to choose between driving home exhausted after a long shift or paying to stay. It’s a yes to humanity, to extended periods of leave when we need it and time off when we need it most. It’s a yes to new money – £90m over four years and a guaranteed 2 per cent pay uplift each year.
‘It’s a yes to better pay for weekends and late shifts – something the Government told us three years ago that it would never concede. To £1,000 a year extra for less-than full-time trainees and an extra point on the pay scale for the most senior registrars.
‘It’s a yes to using exception reporting when we miss out on our training. It’s a yes to the independently validated study of the impact on equalities.’
Dr Wijesuriya added: ‘Our fight for working conditions is not over, and it never will be. But we are already on the road to delivering step-on, step-off training, and more flexibility so we can reflect the reality of our members’ lives and ambitions.’