NHS consultants warn it’s not over yet – despite what Tories and the corporate media say

NHS consultants have accepted a government pay offer – while warning that while their official dispute may be over, the Tories (and a Labour government) had better watch their backs.

NHS consultants: pay offer accepted

Senior hospital doctors in England have accepted a pay offer, bringing an end to strikes and an industrial dispute – all while increasing numbers of NHS staff quit for better paid work overseas.

The deal will see some NHS consultants – experienced specialist doctors – receive a pay increase of nearly 20% for 2023-24. This is because, as the BBC reported:

Consultants got a 6% pay rise in April 2023 and were then offered an extra sum worth nearly 5% on average at the end of last year.

But the amount extra individual consultants got varied considerably from nothing to an extra 12.8%.

The new offer included an extra 2.85% for those between four and seven years into their consultant careers – the group that was getting the smallest rise under the previous offer.

This pay rise will be backdated to March 2024, which means some senior doctors will see their pay increase by nearly 20%.

Doctors’ leaders say medics at all levels have been leaving the NHS in droves, driven by a stressful work environment, Tory-instigated cuts to the health service, and dwindling pay packets.

Doctors leaving in their droves

According to the OECD, the number of UK-trained doctors in Australia rose from just over 3,900 in 2013 to around 6,600 in 2021.

A BMA poll published in 2022 found that around 40% of UK junior doctors planned to leave the NHS as soon as they could find another job, with around a third of those planning to move abroad in the next 12 months. Around 42% of them said Australia was their preferred destination.

NHS consultants have walked out repeatedly since July 2023, when they took action for the first time in more than a decade. Last September consultants also walked out at the same time as junior doctors. It was the first time the two groups had gone on strike simultaneously.

The strikes have compounded waiting list backlogs and years of underfunding that have seen long waiting times build up for treatment, which have put lives at risk.

An improved offer for NHS staff

The BMA said changes to a pay review body as part of the deal would mean it could:

no longer ignore the historical losses that doctors have suffered or the fact that countries abroad are competing for UK doctors with the offer of significantly higher salaries.

Vishal Sharma, chair of the BMA’s consultants committee, added that it was “imperative” the deal lead to the long-term restoration of pay levels in the profession.

After years of repeated real-terms pay cuts, caused by government interference and a failure of the pay review process, consultants have spoken and now clearly feel that this offer is enough of a first step to address our concerns to end the current dispute.

Junior doctors, who are also leaving the profession, remain in dispute with the government. However, the BMA and consultants made clear that this deal was not the end of the road.

NHS consultants: it’s not over, yet

Sharma added:

At the heart of this dispute was our concern for patients and the future sustainability of the NHS. Without valuing doctors, we lose them. Without doctors, we have no NHS and patients suffer.

But the fight is not yet over. This is only the end of the beginning and we have some way to go before the pay consultants have lost over the last 15 years has been restored.

Therefore, all eyes will be on this year’s pay review round, recommendations from the DDRB [Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration] and response from the Government.

Consultants have shown they are not afraid to act when they need to, and ministers, whether present or future, should be warned that we expect to be treated fairly and if the Government fails to do so in future, we will once again find ourselves in the midst of an industrial dispute.

It’s in the Government’s and DDRB’s gift to avoid this, starting with the pay round for the coming year.

As one doctor summed up on X:

The outcome of the consultant ballot divides opinion. Fwiw, I think it was probably the best offer available in the context of the dying days of this government. Was it everything we wanted? No, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, and we retain the ability for further action if necessary.

Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse

Featured image via the BMA