The BMA has slammed the Government’s endorsement of a ‘wholly inadequate’ pay uplift recommendation by the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration, warning the decision could see doctors return to picket lines.
The association has reacted with anger and frustration to today’s announcement that the Government has accepted the DDRB’s sub-inflationary pay award for doctors in England, which equates to an uplift of just 4 per cent for most.
With the recommended uplift falling below the average earnings growth rate of 6 per cent and the RPI’s rate of inflation, which sits at 4.5 per cent, the BMA has warned the Government’s decision has sent a ‘clear message’ to the medical profession, that it does not need or value the efforts of doctors.
Responding to today’s announcement, BMA council chair Philip Banfield has called on health secretary Wes Streeting to urgently ‘come to the negotiating table’ to reach a meaningful commitment on doctors pay, or face the real prospect of escalatory action, including renewed strikes.
He said: ‘Today’s announcement feels like the positive rhetoric we’d heard from ministers was nothing more than that – ministers accepting a woefully inadequate DDRB recommendation demonstrates their lack of commitment to restoring doctors’ lost pay.
‘The failure of both the DDRB and the Government to recognise the need to recruit and retain doctors with pay and conditions that enable them to use their expertise to treat more patients sends a clear message to the profession: we do not need you, we do not want to keep you.’
BANFIELD: Pay award 'derisory'
Today’s pay announcement comes following weeks of growing dissatisfaction among doctors on the Government’s commitment to ensuring credible progress on pay restoration.
Resident doctors in England resumed their pay dispute with the Government in April after the DDRB failed to submit its pay recommendations in time for the start of the financial year, with the BMA resident doctors committee now set to ballot members over the possibility of industrial action.
Meanwhile, the chairs of the BMA consultants and BMA specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors committees have today written to Mr Streeting confirming they too will be re-entering formal dispute.
Dr Banfield said that, while this decision appeared to have been vindicated, resident doctors would not be the only members of the profession considering next steps to the ‘derisory’ award on pay.
He said: ‘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.
‘Doctors’ pay is still around a quarter less than it was in real terms 16 years ago and today’s “award”, takes us backwards, pushing pay restoration even further into the distance without a government plan or reassurance to correct this erosion of what a doctor is worth.'
He added: ‘No one wants a return to scenes of doctors on picket lines – we’d rather be in hospitals, GP practices or in the community seeing patients – but today’s actions from the Government have sadly made this look far more likely.’