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Junior doctors in England have urged the government to reopen negotiations about pay restoration in order to end the five-day industrial action that got underway this morning.
It comes as millions of public sector workers, including teachers, police and junior doctors, were offered pay rises of between 5%-7%. In a press conference today, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his offer is final and the government will not negotiate over pay as “no amount of strikes will change our decision”.
British Medical Association (BMA) chair Professor Phil Banfield has already told BBC Radio 4 that the pay rise for doctors will not end the dispute, nor will it retain doctors and stop them from going abroad.
He also said Rishi Sunak’s statement that he would no longer negotiate shows a “fundamental lack of understanding of the situation and the dire straits the health service has been in for many years”.
He added: “We need to sit down and see whether this will allow us to go into negotiations. It could be a reasonable starting point for us to progress the dispute. I don’t believe that the government is doing all that it can, what it has announced is going to pile the cost of this on to the very workers that are tasked with maintaining the public sector.”
In a separate statement later today, he said that the announcement represents yet another pay cut in real terms and serves only to increase the losses faced by doctors after more than a decade’s worth of sub-inflation pay awards. It completely ignores the BMA’s calls to value doctors for their expertise by full pay restoration to 2008/2009 levels.
“Doctors have long lost all confidence in the supposed independence of the pay review body. Ministers have known these details for weeks and allowed junior doctors to continue to strike without putting this offer to them as part of negotiations. This was disingenuous, showing total disregard for both doctors and patients, and demonstrated how little they care about wanting to bring an end to the industrial action. This is in complete contrast to the government in Scotland, who has negotiated in good faith with junior doctors there. This government made such a fuss about junior doctors declining 5% as not being a credible offer knowing throughout that the pay review body recommendation was higher. However, this dispute is not about a pay rise, but restoring the value of pay,” he added.
Have to raid own budgets for junior doctor pay rises
The prime minister also said he would not fund the pay rise by borrowing more or increasing taxes, and that government departments have had to find savings.
The NHS Confederation have voiced concerns about how the pay increase would be funded and said that this announcement does nothing more than wield an axe to the NHS’s already constrained budget and potentially allow industrial action to disrupt patient care for the foreseeable future.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive, said that if health leaders are expected to raid their own budgets to somehow plug this funding gap at local levels, it will almost certainly result in cutbacks to patient care elsewhere.
He added: “The government cannot say that it is committed to cutting waiting lists and supporting the NHS’s workforce and then not give the NHS the investment it needs to support the new pay award. This is an entirely contradictory view, which will put the NHS in an unsustainable position. The decision could cost the NHS in England hundreds of millions this year and potentially billions next, while the service has already committed to incredibly stretching financial and performance targets.
“We understand that the economy continues to be in a very challenged situation but with waiting lists growing and ill-health rising, the government must reconsider its decision on funding this pay deal for the NHS. If not, it must be honest about the serious repercussions that this will have on what the NHS will be able to deliver, including the fact that the PM’s pledge to reduce waiting lists now rests on a knife edge.”
Junior doctors in Scotland called off a planned strike
Earlier this week, junior doctors in Scotland called off a planned strike after a new pay offer from the Scottish government.
BMA Scotland said it agreed to suspend next week’s strike while they consult members on the proposal for a 12.4% pay increase for 2023/24. For the following three financial years, junior doctors will receive a guaranteed minimum pay uplift of inflation every year. Over this three-year period, the Scottish government has committed to negotiate further annual pay rises on top of inflation that must, “make credible progress on the path towards pay restoration”.
The last junior doctor strike in England took place in April leading to 108,602 cancelled operations and appointments, taking the total number cancelled due to recurring industrial action over the past seven months to 651,229.
This industrial action will be longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history, but the BMA said that this is not a record that needs to go into the history books as it could be called off today if the UK government followed the example of the government in Scotland and produce an offer which is credible to the junior doctors.
Co-chairs of the junior doctors committee Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi added: “The pay offer on the table to junior doctors in Scotland and how it was reached throws into sharp relief the obstinate approach being taken by the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay. The Health Secretary has said there can be no talks while strikes are planned – Scotland has proved him wrong. He said above 5% wasn’t realistic – Scotland proved him wrong. He refused to even acknowledge the concept of pay restoration – Scotland proved this is not only possible but essential.
“We have to get back to talks. The government’s refusal to talk with junior doctors in England who have strikes planned, is out of keeping with all norms of industrial action. Doctors have a right to expect that as in Scotland, and as in many other recent industrial disputes, talks will continue right up to the last minute to try and reach a deal without the need to strike. The complete inflexibility we see from the UK Government today is baffling, frustrating, and ultimately destructive for everyone who wants waiting lists to go down and NHS staffing numbers to go up”