Wes Streeting considers writing off part of doctors' student debts to avert strike
The Department of Health and Social Care is analysing how a new system of 'forgiveness' could be brought in for younger doctors who are paying back student debts of up to £100,000.
The disclosure that the DHSC is looking closely at such a scheme comes before crucial talks on Thursday afternoon between the health secretary and the co-chairs of the British Medical Association's (BMA) resident doctors committee aimed at averting the latter's planned five-day walkout starting on 25 July.
The health department is looking at several different ways such a scheme might work, according to well-placed sources. They include not charging interest on debts accrued by doctors in training while they were at medical school – freezing the debt in effect – and cutting the overall debt by a certain sum for every year the doctor works in the NHS in England.
Advocates of debt relief believe it would incentivise doctors to stay in the NHS rather than quitting and would show them that the government is keen to improve their finances but without giving them big annual pay rises that would prompt other public sector workers to seek the same.
The BMA's resident doctors committee wants Streeting to give the 55,000 doctors in training in England it represents a 29% pay rise over the next few years as part of its long-running campaign to restore the full value of salaries to the level they were at in 2008. But Streeting has refused to reopen negotiations on the 5.4% award for this year he imposed on them in May.
The DHSC has begun modelling the practicalities of a debt relief scheme as it explores what steps it, and NHS trusts, which directly employ medics, could take to meet doctors' concerns about issues that do not involve their salaries but cause them huge frustration.
It is also looking at whether doctors could have some or all of the cost of taking exams needed to progress their careers covered and moves to make it easier for younger doctors to take annual leave.
While Streeting cannot offer resident doctors a bigger pay rise this year, he is aware that being able to commit to progress on non-pay related issues – which he has more freedom to deliver – could show them that he is, as he has said, the health secretary most sympathetic to their desire to improve their working lives that they are likely to encounter.
Debt forgiveness is a key priority for the BMA, which may see it becoming an issue on which the two sides – currently far apart – can find common ground. The co-chairs of the resident doctor committee, Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, indicated that they would consider any proposal from the government on debt write-off.
Crucially, they added that it could act as 'an element' of them realising their ambition of restoring the value of doctors' pay. 'If wiping out student loans for doctors in England is something the government is considering, then we would be interested to see the details of what that means in practical terms.
'Loan forgiveness is something we would have to consider as a committee as an element of restoring value to doctors' working lives, and so if the government is serious about this then we look forward to hearing more from the health secretary in today's meeting.
'After five years of study, students can finish medical school with debts of up to £100,000 and then, as doctors, face monthly loan repayments of up to 10% of their salary for most of their working lives.'
However, any student debt write-off scheme for doctors would be complicated for the government, and require the Treasury's approval. It could also prompt other health unions, notably the Royal College of Nursing, to demand that their members are able to benefit from such an arrangement.
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