Doctor in hospital scrubs talks to elderly patient 906829760 Doctor in hospital scrubs talks to elderly patient 906829760

Restoring pay for SAS doctors in Northern Ireland

Specialists, associate specialist and specialty doctor pay in Northern Ireland has dropped by nearly a third in real-terms over the last 16 years. Now more than ever we need to restore pay to retain and attract doctors to the SAS workforce and protect the future of our profession. 

Pay offer for SAS doctors following intense negotiations with Department of Health

 

NISASC (the Northern Ireland Specialist, Associate Specialist and Specialty Doctors committee) has secured a pay offer for SAS doctors working in Northern Ireland that they feel is a positive step towards full pay restoration.

 

SAS members in Northern Ireland will now be asked to vote on whether to accept this offer through an online referendum that will open on 05 December until 18 December.

 

Read full details of the offer

 

Why we are asking for full pay restoration

For years, SAS doctors here have been working harder and longer, with more complex cases in a much more challenging environment, whilst a crisis builds in the health service.  

We were cautiously optimistic that the newly appointed Health Minister would act to address pay issues, but this has not happened. The pay award for 2023-2024 financial year was not paid until June 2024. 

We are asking for the health minister to take immediate steps to reverse this decline. This must begin with a pay uplift for 24/25 that makes meaningful progress towards full pay restoration and a commitment to continue to work towards this goal. 

Pay deterioration for SAS doctors in Northern Ireland 

The tables below clearly illustrate pay deterioration faced by SAS doctors in Northern Ireland as successive pay uplifts have not kept up with inflation. Each step in the table shows the value of the pay point for both contracts, what that value was in 2008, what is now, and what it would be if uplifts had reflected RPI levels of inflation. Those who have reached the top of the 2008 Specialty Doctor contract are now almost £35,000 worse off because of the failure of successive pay uplifts to take account of inflation. Those on Associate specialist contracts are almost £40,000 worse off.

Specialty Doctor (2008) (Northern Ireland) 

Scale Value 2008/09 2023/24 23/24 (if kept up with RPI) Difference
Min £35,904 £47,186 £65,356 £18,170
1 £38,974 £51,222 £70,944 £19,722
2 £42,965 £56,466 £78,209 £21,743
3 £45,104 £59,277 £82,103 £22,825
4 £48,186 £63,329 £87,713 £24,384
5 £51,256 £67,364 £93,301 £25,937
6 £54,395 £71,489 £99,015 £27,527
7 £57,535 £75,615 £104,731 £29,116
8 £60,675 £79,741 £110,447 £30,706
9 £63,814 £83,867 £116,161 £32,293
10 £66,954 £87,994 £121,876 £33,883

Associate specialist (2008) (Northern Ireland)

Pay Points 2008/09 2023/24 23/24 (if kept up with RPI) Difference
Min £50,339 £66,158 £91,632 £25,474
1 £52,363 £71,477 £95,316 £23,840
2 £56,409 £76,793 £102,681 £25,889
3 £61,103 £83,814 £111,226 £27,412
4 £66,089 £89,899 £120,302 £30,403
5 £69,366 £92,425 £126,267 £33,842
6 £71,580 £95,720 £130,297 £34,577
7 £74,087 £99,015 £134,861 £35,846
8 £76,594 £102,309 £139,424 £37,115
9 £79,101 £105,603 £143,988 £38,385
10 £81,609 £108,902 £148,553 £39,651
Figure 1 - SAS difference in pay uplifts vs inflation 

The table below shows the impact of sub-inflationary pay uplifts over the last 16 years on SAS pay in Northern Ireland. 

SAS (AS and SD 2008) real-terms pay erosion 2008-2024 Figure 2 - Real decline of pay awards for SAS doctors in Northern Ireland

SAS vacancies in Northern Ireland

Whist the number of SAS doctors in Northern Ireland is growing, so too are the number of vacant posts. This suggests that growth is not sufficient to keep up with service demands.  

According to data obtained via BMA Northern Ireland freedom of information requests, as of September 2021, vacant SAS posts in Northern Ireland as a proportion of the overall establishment (vacancy rate) was 25.4%. In September 2023, the vacancy rate was 31.8%.   

However, when looking exclusively at the number of SAS vacancies reported by the Department of Health, the rate is significantly less – just 8.3% in 2021 and 7.71% in 2023.   

This suggests that the Department of Health are significantly underreporting the true extent of SAS vacancies in Northern Ireland due to the narrow scope of its definition of a vacancy. This inevitably leads to an inability to make effective workforce plans and enables huge staffing pressures to go unchecked.    

Now more than ever we need to restore pay back to the level it should be at in order to retain and attract to the SAS workforce and protect the integrity of our profession. 

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