Latest news with #residentDoctors
BBC News
5 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
NHS: Why are doctors striking in England?
Up to 50,000 NHS doctors are striking for five days in England, from Friday 25 to Wednesday 30 doctors who are striking are known as resident doctors, or junior doctors. Most are members of a union called the British Medical Association (BMA).The minister who oversees the National Health Service (NHS), Wes Streeting, says he can't promise there won't be "disruption" to services during the of the public are still encouraged to attend all appointments as long as they have not been told it is cancelled, and to still go to hospital or call 999 in an and GP practices should also be running as normal. What is a strike? A strike is when a group of workers come together and agree to stop do this when they want to protest against something they think is unfair where they strikes are organised by something called a union.A trade union is an organisation of workers from a particular job type or company. They aim to help improve conditions for their members where they can read more about what strikes are here. Who are resident doctors? Resident doctors are fully qualified doctors who are either currently in postgraduate training or gaining experience as locally-employed may have many years of doctors may also be training to specialise in a particular area of work under supervision of a senior doctor, and make up to half of doctors currently working in the NHS. Why are resident doctors striking? The union that represents two-thirds of resident doctors – the British Medical Association (BMA) - says a recent increase to resident doctors' pay does not go far pay rise was proposed by the new Labour government in July members agreed to the pay deal after an 18-month dispute with the previous Conservative government, which included 11 resident doctor doctors received a 5.4% pay rise this financial year, with a 22% increase to their pay over two years. Earlier in July, a vote called a ballot was held among BMA's members, and a majority voted to BMA is calling for a salary rise of 29.2%, to bring salaries back in line with what they say was the value of resident doctors' salaries in resident doctor co-leaders Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: "Resident doctors are not worth less than they were 17 years ago."Restoring pay remains the simplest and most effective route toward improving our working lives." What has the government's response been? Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the BMA was "rushing" into the strikes, in an article in the newspaper, The secretary Wes Streeting called the strikes "irresponsible".Mr Streeting praised NHS workers who weren't striking and who were cancelling holiday plans or working extra hours during the strikes."I'm really proud of the way that NHS leaders and frontline staff have prepared and mobilised to minimise the disruption and minimise the risk of harm to patients," he told PA News on Friday. What has the reaction been elsewhere? Conservative shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew blamed Labour for the strikes, saying they had been too generous to the doctors last year."They handed out inflation-busting pay rises without reform and now the BMA is back for more," he bosses have said that strike action is "bad for patients, for staff and for the NHS".
Daily Mail
09-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Wes Streeting's plans for NHS recovery 'hanging by a thread' after junior doctors announce five day walkout over pay
Wes Streeting has admitted his NHS recovery plan is 'hanging by a thread' as resident doctors gear up for fresh strikes in a fortnight. The Health Secretary accused the British Medical Association (BMA) of being 'completely unreasonable' after it announced the five-day walkout, which could see 200,000 appointments and operations cancelled. Resident doctors, formerly called junior doctors, will start the latest wave of industrial action from 7am on July 25 amid demands for a 29 per cent pay rise. Repeating he will not negotiate on pay, Mr Streeting urged doctors to 'abandon their rush to strike' and reopen talks to 'improve resident doctors' working lives instead'. He said: 'No trade union in British history has seen its members receive a 28.9 per cent pay rise [over three years] only to immediately respond with strikes, and the majority of BMA resident doctors didn't vote to strike. 'This is completely unreasonable. The NHS recovery is hanging by a thread, and the BMA are threatening to pull it. 'The BMA should abandon their rush to strike and work with us to improve resident doctors working lives instead.' The news of mass disruption to patients comes less than a week after Labour promised its 10 Year Health Plan 'will make using the NHS as easy and convenient as doing your banking or shopping online.' There are now fears further strikes by doctors could lead nurses and consultants to follow suit. But polling shows public support has waned with just one in five Britons now backing resident doctors going on strike. A survey of 2,054 Britons by the Good Growth Foundation found that 56 per cent of the public oppose resident doctor strikes, with only 21 per cent supporting them. In a letter to the BMA's Resident Doctor Committee, Mr Streeting added: 'The public won't see why, after a 28.9 per cent pay rise, you would still walk out on strike, and neither do I.' Since Labour took office the backlog in routine hospital treatments in England has fallen slightly from 7.6 million to 7.4 million, meaning this month's strike could completely wipe out any progress. On Tuesday the BMA secured a mandate for up to six months of disruption by resident doctors less than a year after the Health Secretary handed them a 22.3 per cent pay rise. Nurses and consultant doctors are also being asked by their unions whether they want to walk out over pay, meaning the NHS could be facing a series of strikes this summer. Hospital bosses have been forced to cancel 1.5 million appointments in 11 separate strikes by the medics since 2022. Yesterday resident doctors announced they are 'giving the Government two weeks to come to the table to negotiate' or they will walk out from 7am on July 25 to 7am on July 30. BMA resident doctors committee co-chairs Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: 'We met Wes Streeting yesterday and made every attempt to avoid strike action by opening negotiations for pay restoration. 'Unfortunately, the Government has stated that it will not negotiate on pay, wanting to focus on non-pay elements without suggesting what these might be. Without a credible offer to keep us on the path to restore our pay, we have no choice but to call strikes.' Health bosses warned the strikes will cause tens of thousands of cancellations and lead to mass patient suffering. Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: 'Announcing five days of strike action with just two weeks' notice can only be harmful. 'It's totally unfair to patients whose care will be cancelled at such short notice just as the NHS was beginning to turn the tide on reducing waiting lists.' Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said the walkout will 'lead to thousands of cancelled appointments and operations' and that 'ultimately it is patients who will bear the brunt of this decision'. 'It is disappointing that talks to avert industrial action seem to have broken down so quickly. But it is hard to see how the Government could commit to increasing resident doctor pay further, particularly after they have received some of the biggest public sector pay rises over the last two years.'
Times
09-07-2025
- Health
- Times
The pay perk striking doctors don't mention: gold-plated pensions
Salaries are only part of the story when it comes to the debate about resident doctors' pay packets. Missing from the British Medical Association's call for a 29 per cent pay rise is recognition of the fact that doctors, alongside nurses, teachers, civil servants and other public sector employees, are among the few who still have generous salary-linked pensions. Most of us save into defined contribution (DC) schemes, where the size of your pension pot at retirement depends on how much was paid in and how your investments performed. However, defined benefit (DB) schemes, which have largely disappeared outside the public sector, pay a guaranteed income in retirement, linked to your level of pay and increasing in line with inflation. Doctors are told they receive a 23.7 per cent pension contribution from the NHS but in reality the cost to the taxpayer of funding their retirement income can be higher. In years when the cost of paying out pensions is more than what is being contributed, the Treasury — and therefore the taxpayer — fills the gap.
Telegraph
09-07-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
What resident doctors don't want you to know about their pay
A fresh wave of NHS strikes looms after the Government refused to reopen pay negotiations with resident doctors. The British Medical Association (BMA) has demanded a 29pc pay rise for the medics, formerly known as 'junior' doctors, to rectify what it claims to be 17 years of real-term cuts. Yet what is often forgotten is that these doctors enjoy bumper pensions worth close to 75pc of their salaries in retirement – and which are guaranteed to rise with inflation each year. Doctors enjoy index-linked, taxpayer-funded, 'defined benefit' schemes, many of which pay a proportion of the recipient's final salary from the day they retire. Under the NHS scheme, staff contribute between 5.2pc and 12.5pc of their salaries while the state contributes a vast 23.7pc each year. By comparison, private sector workers, who are almost all enrolled in 'defined contribution' pensions where the value of the final pot depends on investment performance, receive a contribution of just 3pc from their employer. The NHS is paying out nearly £1bn a month in staff pensions, with almost 2,000 staff receiving pensions of over £100,000 annually – a figure that has more than doubled in a year. These lucrative pension packages complicate the case for a further pay rise. Resident doctors have already been awarded an inflation-beating 5.4pc pay rise this year. It comes after the Labour Government handed the medics a 22pc pay rise over two years in July last year to bring an end to a series of strikes. Eleven walkouts by resident doctors since 2022 have led to almost 1.5 million appointments being cancelled or rescheduled, according to NHS England. The strikes are likely to have cost the taxpayer at least £1.7bn. Resident doctor salaries start at £36,616, rising to £42,008 in the second year of training, according to the BMA. The average starting salary for a full-time resident doctor has risen from £29,380 in 2022-23 to around £38,800 today, an increase of nearly £9,500. The BMA claims that resident doctors' real pay has fallen by 21pc since 2008. But these calculations use the retail prices index (RPI) measure of inflation, rather than the consumer prices index (CPI) favoured by economists. Under the CPI, pay has fallen by a more modest 4.7pc. Even so, the pay squeeze is driving resident doctors abroad in search of better salaries and lifestyles. The solution, according to some experts, is to rebalance their benefits – decreasing the Government's pension contributions to top up wages instead. Some 75,421 NHS workers opted out of their pension scheme in the 2023-24 financial year, a 72pc increase from the 43,732 who did so in 2020-21. These were primarily workers under the age of 40, suggesting they value higher wages today over more lucrative retirement packages later. Maxwell Marlow, of the Adam Smith Institute think tank, said: 'If junior doctors want a pay rise – which I think they deserve, given that they are paid much more in the United States and Australia – the best thing to do would be to do a fiscal transfer from pension to pay packets. 'This would also help alleviate the public sector pensions crisis, which is a total disgrace.' Britain currently hands £54bn a year to public sector retirees – including doctors – and another £35bn in pension contributions to current state workers. Rachel Reeves last month announced the NHS would get a record £29bn boost to its annual budget in her Spending Review. However, recent increases to NHS funding – such as the £22.6bn uplift announced last October – have almost been swallowed up by pay rises. The Department for Health and Social Care was approached for comment.
Telegraph
09-07-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
If Starmer caves in to junior doctors, he will destroy his last crumbs of credibility
If there were a prize for the most optimistic Cabinet minister in the country, it would surely go to Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary. Urging resident doctors not to take strike action in support of a 29 per cent pay demand, Streeting warned them: 'The public will not forgive strike action in these circumstances and nor will I.' Really, though? Because all the evidence suggests that the public have bought wholesale into the notion that poor, underpaid doctors are the modern heroes of the NHS, which is itself an institution so perfect that it is far beyond criticism. If an award was to be presented on who was more popular between the doctors or Streeting's Government, I would advise the Health Secretary not to clear a space on his mantelpiece just yet. Resident doctors (formerly known as 'junior doctors') have already announced a five-day strike at the end of this month, sending a strong signal to the Government that they mean business and that patients' welfare is to come a poor second to the priority of increasing their take-home pay. It has been reported that Streeting is 'adamant' that he will not offer the unhappy medics any more money, and so the obvious next question will be: 'How much exactly?' Ministers, after all, can hardly blame anyone else if its attempts to convince the nation that it means what it says and that it will not be influenced by external pressures to change policy is regarded with a degree of incredulity. A dispute with the residents is the last thing this Government needs. Streeting is one of Labour's more effective and courageous ministers, not to mention its best communicator. But even he will find it difficult to turn public sympathy away from resident doctors. The problem is that, just a year ago, the Health Secretary awarded them a 22 per cent pay deal over two years. Like the train drivers' settlement that was agreed by former Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, the deal came with no strings attached and with no obligation to reform outdated working practices. And, like at least some train drivers, the residents have come back for more. There is a case for looking at the doctors' pay and conditions, given how severely pay rates have suffered since the 2008 financial crash. But then, there is a case for looking at everyone's – public and private sector employees' – remuneration. Are doctors such a special case that they can demand 29 per cent when everyone else is forced to settle for single digit – and low single digit – settlements? Even a modest amount of disruption within the NHS will severely undermine the Government's efforts to clear waiting lists and improve patient care. If doctors' strike action forces the health service to take a step backwards in the next six months – and the recent BMA strike ballot gives them a mandate for industrial action in that period – only for Streeting to cave into their demands anyway, it would expose a potentially fatal weakness in this Government. As we are constantly told, Labour is the party of the NHS. What is rarely explained is why, given how precious the NHS is to voters, they have chosen to entrust the institution more frequently and for longer periods of time to the Conservatives than to the party that founded it. The esteem in which the NHS is held, despite Labour's best efforts over decades, has not rubbed off on the party. So if ministers mess up their negotiations with the resident doctors, expect voters to blame the Government with exactly the same degree of ferocity with which they would regard a Conservative Government in similar circumstances. Labour will be offered no free pass on the NHS and Streeting should be aware of this before he enters negotiations with the unhappy residents. This means that playing hardball will similarly have no worse impact on Labour than it would on the Conservatives. The Government cannot continually claim there is no money left and yet open the public purse for this or that exemption when it comes to pay. There must come a point at which ministers must start behaving as if they believe their own rhetoric on public spending. Capitulating to the resident doctors would signal an end to any pretence by the Government that it aims to get serious about public sector pay. The confrontation between the resident doctors and the Government could prove a defining one for the future of Keir Starmer's administration. If ever there were an opportunity to inject some steel into ministers' backbones, this is it. The question is whether the inevitable orchestrated avalanche of emails from doctors and their supporters to unhappy Labour backbenchers will have the same effect as in previous successful campaigns. If it does, and if Streeting and Starmer are forced to make more concessions in the face of unethical and harmful industrial action, maybe ministers should consider surrendering the reins of Government immediately, without the need for a messy general election.
