Latest news with #residentdoctors
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Resident doctors' pay has fallen behind 2010-11 levels, report finds
Pay for resident doctors has fallen by 4% to 10% since 2010-11, independent analysis finds, as staff prepare to strike on Friday. The analysis by the health thinktank Nuffield Trust falls considerably below the estimate from the British Medical Association (BMA), which claims doctors' pay has fallen by 29% since 2008-09, a time frame just two years longer. The BMA is seeking a 29% rise for resident doctors to grant what it considers to be full pay restoration – a demand the health secretary, Wes Streeting, has called 'completely unreasonable' after he gave a 22% rise last year for 2023-24 and 2024-25. The Nuffield Trust noted the earnings estimate can change considerably depending on which baseline year, inflation measure and pay dataset is used. It considers its method to be the most robust, as earnings data collection changed in 2010, and the Office for National Statistics discourages the use of the retail price index (RPI) to represent inflation, in favour of the consumer price index (CPI), which is typically lower. The report's authors said: 'A shortage of independent analysis has meant that much of the debate has been based on flawed figures. All too often, true levels of inflation have been misrepresented, basic pay conflated with total pay, starting pay presented as average pay, whereas affordability arguments often do not recognise that some additional pay is returned to the public purse in taxes.' A BMA spokesperson said the analysis proves that 'whatever measure you use, doctors' pay has fallen over the last 15 years and more'. They said the BMA uses RPI because 'we believe it best reflects the real-life experience of working people in the UK', and is used to set important living costs for doctors, such as student loan repayments, cars taxes and train fare caps. 'What this analysis doesn't acknowledge, is that since 2008-09 doctors' pay has fallen by a much greater amount in real terms than the rest of the population. Indeed, if you do use CPI, the whole population has in fact achieved pay restoration to 2009 levels, while doctors still remain behind,' said the spokesperson. The Nuffield Trust report found that tracking pay over the past four decades revealed a 'striking picture of sustained periods of real-term increases followed by similarly sustained periods of real-terms decreases in pay'. Because people tend to be loss-averse, this means doctors feel 'the downside of real-terms cuts more acutely than the upside of real-terms increases', the authors noted. Since 2023, the pay scales of resident doctors and consultants have started to increase again in real terms after a fall over the decade prior. 'Looking even further back to the late nineties and early noughties, they have fared well compared to inflation,' the authors said. The 5,000 resident – formerly junior – doctors the BMA represents are set to strike for the 12th time since 2023 from 7am on 25 July, after talks collapsed with the government over pay. Streeting had been looking to strike a deal with the BMA by offering doctors a new system of 'forgiveness' of the student loans built up at medical school, which can be as much as £100,000. NHS England has urged hospital chief executives to keep routine operations and appointments and only reschedule if there is a risk to patient safety. Prof Meghana Pandit, the NHS England national medical director, said: 'There is no doubt this industrial action will take a toll on patients and NHS staff, and it is disappointing it is going ahead. While it will mean some appointments won't be able to go ahead as planned, we are doing all we can to limit this, and patients should continue to use NHS services in the usual way.' The BMA council chair, Dr Tom Dolphin, called NHS England's announcement 'worrying' and 'irresponsible' since delivering non-urgent planned care on strike deals 'will leave staffing levels unsafe across the board'. Instead senior doctors should prioritise emergency and urgent care, he said. Barclays estimates the resident doctors strike could lead Britain's economy to flatline in the third quarter. Its economists said 250,000 working days could be lost during the industrial action, which could cut the UK's growth rate by about 0.1 percentage points. The bank had been forecasting 0.1% growth in Q3. It says there is a 'heightened risk' the strike could wipe this out to zero. The Nuffield Trust analysis showed that for the year to March 2026, resident doctors starting their first year postgraduate training on the job will have a full-time basic salary of £38,831, topped up on average to £45,900, when additional and unsocial hours, being on call, and geographical allowances are included. Specialty registrars, who have completed their two-year postgraduate training, receive a basic salary of between £52,656 and £73,992 depending on experience, reaching £80,500 including top-up pay. For NHS consultants, their basic salaries start at £109,725, rising to £145,478 for those with 14 years of experience at that grade, and with top-ups taking them up to £161,600. The report notes that GP earnings are harder to pin down, but estimate these may have been about £163,500 for partners and £108,300 for salaried GPs in 2022-23. For 2024-25, the average NHS earnings of doctors in their first year of work was above the median. Specialty registrars' average NHS earnings were higher than the salaries of nearly nine in 10 of the wider workforce, while GP partner and consultants' NHS earnings were in the top 1-2%.
Sky News
7 hours ago
- Health
- Sky News
Doctors go on strike for five days - here's everything you need to know
Why you can trust Sky News Doctors in England and Wales go on strike for five days from Friday, with warnings it could lead to patient harm in emergency departments. It is the culmination of an escalating row between NHS bosses and the British Medication Association (BMA) over pay. Here is everything you need to know about the strikes. How long is the strike? From 7am on Friday 25 July to 7am on Wednesday 30 July. Who is striking? Up to 50,000 resident doctors will walk out. Resident doctors is the new name for junior doctors - it was changed to better reflect their responsibilities. Resident doctors are fully qualified doctors who are either currently in postgraduate training or gaining experience as locally employed doctors to become consultants, GPs or specialists. Their title was changed after years of calls for the term "junior" to be retired, as it was seen as both misleading and demeaning. General practice, community pharmacies, and dentistry are not impacted by the action. How will it affect appointments? During previous strikes, NHS England told trusts to cancel large volumes of non-urgent care so that consultants could step in to cover emergency care. Previous rounds of industrial action - 11 walkouts over multiple days - saw an estimated 1.5 million appointments cancelled or rescheduled. But under the leadership of new NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey, hospitals have now been instructed to cancel non-urgent work only in "exceptional circumstances" – and only with prior approval. This suggests that much fewer planned appointments will be cancelled, although no exact figures have been given by either side. The BMA has warned this new approach risks spreading doctors too thinly. How will I know if my appointment has been cancelled? Patients have been advised to "choose healthcare wisely" during the strike. If your appointment has been cancelled, or rearranged, you will be contacted by the hospital directly. Priority will be given to patients with the most pressing health needs. 2:27 If you do not hear that your appointment has been changed, you should attend as usual. Will I still be able to access emergency care? If you need emergency care during the strike you should still go to hospital as normal. Patients have been told to call 999 if it is a medical or mental health emergency. If the situation is non-life threatening, patients should seek support through NHS 111, NHS 111 online, their GP or a pharmacy. Why are they striking? Doctors in England and Wales were awarded a 5.4% pay increase by the government, but the BMA still threatened strike action, claiming the increases did not account for historical pay freezes. Instead the BMA is calling for a rise of 29.2% to bring salaries back in line with 2008 levels. More than 26,000 resident doctors voted in favour of the strikes. I thought they already had a pay rise? Yes, in July last year resident doctors were awarded a raise of 22% over two years, bringing to end months of strike action. It was the highest public sector award in recent years. But the trade union argues that pay has declined significantly since 2008 when adjusting for inflation. The latest deal saw doctors given a 4% increase, plus £750 "on a consolidated basis" - which works out as an average rise of 5.4%. The BMA said no doctor "took the possibility of striking lightly" but the majority of its members believed they had "no other choice". "Doctors have spoken and spoken clearly," the union said. "They won't accept that they are worth a fifth less than they were in 2008. Our pay may have declined but our will to fight remains strong." The BMA said Mr Streeting had the power to "make the right decision" on pay. Does the public support the strikes? A new YouGov poll found support for the strikes is declining. The survey found about half (52%) of people in the UK either "somewhat oppose" (20%) or "strongly oppose" (32%) the idea of resident doctors going on strike over pay. Older people are more likely to be against, with 52% of those aged over 65 "strongly opposed", compared to 10% of those aged 18 to 24. YouGov says the proportion of people who support the strikes has dropped five percentage points since May last year. What does the government say? Talks between the government and BMA have continued, with the latter saying strikes could still be avoided. Health secretary Wes Streeting has ruled out any additional pay rises this year, but has said other aspects of the contract - including student debt, exam fees and working conditions - may be up for negotiation. 2:50 Mr Streeting previously warned the BMA the public "will not forgive" strike action. He wrote in The Times that any walkouts would be a "disaster" for the union and for patients, adding the government "can't afford" more pay rises. NHS chiefs said any return to industrial action would be "bad for patients, for staff and for the NHS". Chief executive of NHS Providers Daniel Elkeles said: "We need cool heads to de-escalate this and remove the threat of further damaging industrial action."
The Independent
a day ago
- Health
- The Independent
Why the resident doctors are wrong to go on a five-day strike
The imminent strikes by the BMA resident doctors pose a moment of sadness. It is sad for patients and sad for the NHS. We are in the economic equivalent of a Covid crisis in the NHS; if the proposed reforms aren't delivered, it will be an existential crisis for our health system. I do not say that at all lightly, but I do say it from decades of knowledge and experience. It is a relief that reforms are already starting to see things moving in the right direction, but this action will choke off that recovery and put the NHS in a perilous place. I was a GP for 29 years. It is a privilege to be a clinician and share people's lives at difficult moments. It is our professional duty to put the people we care for before ourselves. Last year's (and this year's) pay award amounts to a 28.9 per cent increase for resident doctors compared with three years ago. It is what many other people dream of, not to mention the almost unique index-linked NHS pensions. It cannot have been easy to persuade the Treasury to pay out in such resource-constrained times. Having pocketed that, the resident doctors now need to accept that there is no more money for pay – reform has to have priority. That said, there are valid issues to be sorted out in training, allocation to jobs, and working conditions. It isn't right that resident doctors can be randomly allocated to posts, disrupting lives, or find the catering arrangements totally inadequate when on call. However, the NHS 10-year plan contains within it a pledge to deal with such matters with speed. So, I just don't understand the call for a strike. It is disproportionate when there is such an open door. Without getting too Monty Python, as a junior doctor, I did one in two or one in three 'on calls', which meant working the days and also working through every other night (or third night) with time beyond 40 hours paid at a third of our normal rate. It was brutal, but our representatives worked to make things better – and from this, the current generation benefits. We wouldn't ever have considered taking action against our patients. And this action is against patients. The resident doctors may be worried about their futures, but so is every patient who now might not be treated. Polls suggest patients do not agree with the resident doctors. I hope the public supports the NHS and opposes the resident doctors this time. I hope resident doctors support the NHS – and not their leaders. The proposed action will further erode trust by people in the NHS. It is already at an all-time low, and the consent of the nation to use 40 per cent of departmental spend on a poorly performing healthcare system is unlikely to continue without improvement. This resident doctors' action almost guarantees the end of the NHS if they continue, playing into the hands of those who want to have a different healthcare system. This action is the industrial relations equivalent of the charge of the Light Brigade. The resident doctors should remember the spirit of the Hippocratic oath; first, do no harm.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Resident doctors' strike to go ahead as government refuses to budge on pay
Resident doctors' strike to go ahead as government refuses to budge on pay Resident doctors in England will go on strike this week as the government has failed to make an offer that would "meet the scale" of the challenges felt by medics, the British Medical Association (BMA) has said. More than 26,000 resident doctors voted in favour of the industrial action earlier this month, amid a long-running dispute centred on pay. The term "resident doctor" replaced "junior doctor" last year, in a bid to better reflect their expertise and responsibilities. They will stage a full walk out from 7am on Friday 25 July until 7am on Wednesday 30 July. Crunch talks have been held between the union and Health Secretary Wes Streeting in recent days. But the co-chairs of the BMA's resident doctors committee said on Tuesday "it was made very clear" by the government that a pay rise is "off the table". ADVERTISEMENT Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: "While we were happy to discuss non-pay issues that affect doctors' finances we have always been upfront that this is at its core a pay dispute. "The simplest and most direct means of restoring the more than a fifth of our pay that has eroded since 2008 is to raise our pay." The BMA is calling for resident doctors to be given a salary increase of 29.2% and argues this is the level at which pay has declined in real terms since 2008, when adjusting for inflation. The co-chairs said: "Student debt and the cost of training remain crushing burdens on the finances of resident doctors. "We had hoped that there would be enough new ideas about relieving these burdens that we could make some progress in these talks. "Disappointingly, what we saw would not have been significant enough to change the day-to-day financial situation for our members." ADVERTISEMENT "The non-pay aspects of last year's pay deal have still not been delivered, which has shaken the confidence of our members that any further non-pay elements would be honoured," they added. The statement concluded: "At present it looks as if these talks have not seen such a breakthrough and so regrettably, strikes must now proceed. "However our door remains open, and we are glad to have met with the Secretary of State in a constructive spirit. We want to keep talking but we don't accept we can't talk about pay." Health Secretary labels strike 'completely unjustified' In response, Mr Streeting has accused the BMA of "recklessly and needlessly" opting for strike action. "The BMA would have lost nothing by taking up the offer to postpone strike action to negotiate a package that would improve the working lives of resident doctors," he said. ADVERTISEMENT The strikes "will cause unnecessary disruption to patients [and] put additional pressure on their NHS colleagues," he added. "All of my attention will be now on averting harm to patients and supporting NHS staff at work." Mr Streeting said the doctors have received a 28.9% pay rise in the last three years. He continued: "Strike action is completely unjustified, completely unprecedented in the history of British trade unionism and shows a complete disdain for patients and the wider recovery of the NHS."
Sky News
2 days ago
- Health
- Sky News
Resident doctors' strike to go ahead as government refuses to budge on pay
Resident doctors in England will go on strike this week as the government has failed to make an offer that would "meet the scale" of the challenges felt by medics, the British Medical Association (BMA) has said. More than 26,000 resident doctors voted in favour of the industrial action earlier this month, amid a long-running dispute centred on pay. The term "resident doctor" replaced "junior doctor" last year, in a bid to better reflect their expertise and responsibilities. They will stage a full walk out from 7am on Friday 25 July until 7am on Wednesday 30 July. Crunch talks have been held between the union and Health Secretary Wes Streeting in recent days. But the co-chairs of the BMA's resident doctors committee said on Tuesday "it was made very clear" by the government that a pay rise is "off the table". Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: "While we were happy to discuss non-pay issues that affect doctors' finances we have always been upfront that this is at its core a pay dispute. "The simplest and most direct means of restoring the more than a fifth of our pay that has eroded since 2008 is to raise our pay." The BMA is calling for resident doctors to be given a salary increase of 29.2% and argues this is the level at which pay has declined in real terms since 2008, when adjusting for inflation. The co-chairs said: "Student debt and the cost of training remain crushing burdens on the finances of resident doctors. "We had hoped that there would be enough new ideas about relieving these burdens that we could make some progress in these talks. "Disappointingly, what we saw would not have been significant enough to change the day-to-day financial situation for our members." 2:27 "The non-pay aspects of last year's pay deal have still not been delivered, which has shaken the confidence of our members that any further non-pay elements would be honoured," they added. The statement concluded: "At present it looks as if these talks have not seen such a breakthrough and so regrettably, strikes must now proceed. "However our door remains open, and we are glad to have met with the Secretary of State in a constructive spirit. We want to keep talking but we don't accept we can't talk about pay." Health Secretary labels strike 'completely unjustified' In response, Mr Streeting has accused the BMA of "recklessly and needlessly" opting for strike action. "The BMA would have lost nothing by taking up the offer to postpone strike action to negotiate a package that would improve the working lives of resident doctors," he said. The strikes "will cause unnecessary disruption to patients [and] put additional pressure on their NHS colleagues," he added. "All of my attention will be now on averting harm to patients and supporting NHS staff at work." Mr Streeting said the doctors have received a 28.9% pay rise in the last three years.
