NHS consultants will end strike action after accepting a new pay deal worth up to £20,000 a year.
The senior NHS doctors have voted 83 per cent in favour of an improved offer after the first deal put to members was narrowly defeated earlier this year.
The British Medical Association (BMA) had paused strikes while negotiations took place after an initial pay offer was voted against by 51 per cent to 49 per cent in January.
Rishi Sunak hailed the resolution as “excellent news for patients”. He added: “It will mean we can continue making progress towards our goal of cutting the waiting lists, which have now fallen for the fourth month in a row.
“Consultants perform a vital role at the heart of the NHS – I’m pleased they’ve accepted this deal, which is fair for them and fair for the taxpayer.”
As with the original offer, the pay deal will increase the most junior consultants’ salary to £99,532 per year, up £11,000 on the start of 2024, including a 6 per cent pay rise that has already been awarded. It will also mean the most experienced senior consultants get a pay rise that takes their base NHS salaries to nearly £132,000, up by between £12,800 and £19,400 on the start of 2024, bringing more of them in line with the top pay point.
This improved offer was able to secure the support of more consultants by offering those in middle bands, with between four and seven years’ experience, a pay rise of £3,000, or 2.85 per cent, on top of the 6 per cent already awarded.
Consultants also earn tens of thousands of pounds more when including overtime, private work and lucrative NHS pensions.
NHS data for 2022 showed that they earned £128,000 each on average, with a dozen taking home more than £350,000 a year and one person in excess of half a million.
Almost one in 10 consultants were taking home more than £165,000 – the amount that Mr Sunak earns.
The doctors also pay into – with large contributions from the state – to a pension pot with a lifetime allowance worth just over £1 million.
Maternity leave reform
The BMA consultants’ committee also said the deal offered contract reform, including improvements for women’s ability to take maternity leave, and changes to the independent pay review body process.
Consultants, like other public sector staff, will also be awarded a pay rise for 2024-25 based on the decision by the independent pay review body, in this case, the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Board.
The BMA said 62 per cent, or 22,700, of its consultants took part in the vote, with 83 per cent voting for the new deal. There are around 60,000 consultants working in England who will all be eligible for the pay rise.
Consultants have been in a pay dispute for almost a year and first went on strike in July – contributing to the 1.4 million cancelled NHS appointments along with junior doctors, who remain in a dispute.
Victoria Atkins, the Health Secretary, said: “I am pleased that, after weeks of negotiations, they have accepted this fair and reasonable offer, putting an end to the threat of further strike action.”
Junior doctors remain in dispute with the Government as they seek a pay rise worth up to 35 per cent a year.
The BMA’s junior doctors’ committee secured a new mandate to continue striking until September as well as “action short of a strike” that could mean they use measures such as “work to rule” where they carry out the minimum they are contracted to.
Dr Vishal Sharma, chairman of the BMA consultants’ committee, said: “We’ve reached this point not just through our tough negotiations with the Government, but thanks to the resolve of consultants, who took the difficult decision to strike, and did so safely and effectively, on multiple occasions, sending a clear message that they would not back down.”
He added: “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.”
NHS consultants in England have narrowly rejected a pay offer from the government – meaning long-running strike action could continue.
The senior doctors received the offer last November of a 4.95% pay rise on top of the annual 6% increase, following a month of “intense negotiations” with the government.
At the time, the British Medical Association, which is the trade union for doctors in the UK, said it would ballot its members and if the offer was accepted, the BMA would call an end to strike action.
But 51.1% of its members have now voted against it.
The BMA’s consultants committee said it had rejected the offer in light of the ballot result, but was giving ministers an opportunity to improve it to a point that may be acceptable to members.
The agreement also sought to reform the pay structure for senior doctors, reducing the number of pay brackets and the time it takes to reach the top and making a clearer link between pay progression and experience.
Consultants in England have a mandate to take industrial action until June.
BMA consultants committee chair Vishal Sharma said: “The vote has shown that consultants do not feel the current offer goes far enough to end the current dispute and offer a long-term solution to the recruitment and retention crisis for senior doctors.
“However, with the result so close, the consultants committee is giving the government a chance to improve the offer.
“In the coming days we will be further engaging with consultants, and seeking talks with government to explore whether the concerns expressed by our members during the referendum process can be addressed.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins said: “I hugely value the work of NHS consultants and I am disappointed that after weeks of constructive negotiations the BMA has, by the narrowest of margins, rejected this fair and reasonable offer.
She said the government was “carefully considering next steps”.
Read more:
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The BMA said 23,544 consultants took part in the referendum on the offer, with a turnout of 64.8%.
A total of 11,507 voted in favour, and 12,037 voted against.
Medics from the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) union also rejected the offer earlier this month.
The NHS in England has been beset by strike action for more than a year.
Walkouts by various staff groups including doctors, nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists have led to more than 1.3 million appointments, procedures and operations being rescheduled.
Consultants have staged four rounds of strike action in the current dispute, including an unprecedented joint walkout with junior doctors across September and October 2023.
Junior doctors in England are currently being balloted to see if they want to continue strike action in their long-running dispute over pay.
The BMA said its members are being asked if they want to extend industrial action for another six months.