The Government has told the DDRB it wants a 2.4% NHS pay rise for doctors, a below-inflation uplift that is now under review. Dr Tom Dolphin said the proposal amounts to a pay cut and warned it could deepen unrest across the service.
Dr Tom Dolphin and the BMA
Dolphin, who chairs the BMA council, said: "It beggars belief that at a time when patients are being treated in hospital corridors and car parks, people are waiting too long for a GP appointment and the Government’s pledge to bring down waiting lists is stalling, ministers are saying doctors deserve a pay cut."
He also said: "While we’ve secured hard-fought progress in recent years, the bottom line is that pay for doctors is well below what it was 20 years ago, having experienced larger salary reductions than any other professional group."
The BMA’s case is not only about the size of the uplift. It is also about the gap between the Government’s proposal and what doctors have lost over time, with the union saying the recent gains do not erase the longer fall in pay.
DDRB evidence from Government
The Government’s evidence to the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists’ Remuneration recommends the 2.4% rise. The body will weigh that evidence before deciding what recommendation to make on doctors’ pay.
Dolphin said: "Cutting pay is not the way to tell a workforce you value them, and doing so will do nothing to keep doctors in the country and the NHS, working to improve the experience of patients and performance of services."
England consultants and strike action
He added: "In the short term, when we have groups of doctors in dispute, and with consultants in England having a mandate for strike action, a failure to recognise and value their expertise risks further industrial unrest and disruption."
The BMA says consultants in England already have a mandate for strike action, while Dolphin warned that a failure to value doctors’ expertise risks more disruption. He also said the current project by policymakers and NHS bosses to replace doctors with non-medical staff on the cheap is already risking patient safety.
On the DDRB itself, Dolphin said: "The pay review body, the DDRB, will face a test of its independence, and we urge its members to consider what the NHS and patients really need, rather than be hamstrung by a Government telling them it is not prepared to invest properly in the medical workforce."
For doctors, the next step is the DDRB’s judgment on whether the Government’s 2.4% figure stays intact or is changed before pay is set.
