Junior doctors accept pay deal - but warn it's only a 'first step' to addressing long-term fall in wages

Junior doctors voted to accept a new pay deal and bring long-running industrial action to an end - but a leading North East union representative said this had to be seen as "just the first step".

This marks the end of a dispute that has lasted 22 months - but local and national figures at the British Medical Association trade union said that after long term "pay erosion" since 2008, more above-inflation pay rises would be needed in the coming years. The BMA has argued for "full pay restoration" during the dispute.

To illustrate this, the union said pay had fallen 26.1% in real terms between 2008 and last year. Now though, 66% of BMA junior doctors - who will from Wednesday be formally known as "resident doctors" - have voted in favour of accepting the deal offered by the new Labour Government.

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Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's Northern Resident Doctor Committee (RDC) told ChronicleLive: "It's a positive step - a positive first step towards full pay restoration. Doctors' pay erosion has continued since 2008 and this is finally seeing it begin to be restored - but this will clearly have to be a journey, not just a single event.

"This is good progress but it's clear that our members want to continue on the journey towards full pay restoration and therefore we will be watching the recommendations of the DDRB [Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration] closely early next year. We will also plan to organise, and re-ballot [for industrial action] if necessary. But the bottom line is that as a doctor I don't want to be on strike."

He also said that non-pay elements of the deal agreed by doctors - such as a Government commitment to review the rotational nature of doctors' training - were welcome. "That is a huge issue," he said. "You can be effectively starting a new job every three or six months, and that means everything from experiencing pay errors to meeting new people and learning new systems."

Dr Fletcher's comments echoed those of the national co-chairs of the BMA's resident doctor committee. Dr Vivek Trivedi told BBC Breakfast: “This is the first step towards restoring pay, which is all that doctors have wanted since the beginning of this campaign.

“As you’ll know, we’ve had a huge pay cut since 2008 but this marks a change in that trajectory. Doctors who were being paid just over £15-an-hour before this offer will now be paid a little over £17-an-hour, so it does mark an improvement, but the journey is not over.”

He added: “We want to hold on to our doctors, we want medicine to be an attractive profession so that they don’t escape to places like Canada and Australia and New Zealand.

“And this offer does not do everything in one go, but we’ve never asked for everything in one go, so as long as we continue on that journey, then we can inspire confidence for doctors to stay and to build back up our workforce so that we can bring healthcare back to a high quality system that it used to be."

The last strike action took place just days before the general election from June 27 to July 2, affected 61,989 appointments, procedures and operations. This new deal will see junior doctors’ pay rise by between 3.71% and 5.05% – averaging 4.05% – on top of their existing pay award for 2023/24. This will be backdated to April 2023.

Each part of the pay scale will also be uplifted by 6%, plus £1,000, as recommended by the DDRB, with an effective date of April 1 2024. Both rises mean a doctor starting foundation training in the NHS will see base pay increase to £36,600, up from about £32,400. A full-time doctor entering specialty training will have basic pay rise to £49,900 from about £43,900.

Outside the pay negotiations, the Government has agreed that from September 18, “junior doctors” across the UK will be known as “resident doctors” to better reflect their expertise, the BMA said.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said on Monday he is “pleased” the BMA has accepted the Government’s pay deal. He said: “We inherited a broken NHS, the most devastating dispute in the health service’s history, and negotiations hadn’t taken place with the previous ministers since March.

“Things should never have been allowed to get this bad. That’s why I made ending the strikes a priority, and we negotiated an end to them in just three weeks. I am pleased that our offer has been accepted, ending the strikes ahead of looming winter pressures on the NHS.

“This marks the necessary first step in our mission to cut waiting lists, reform the broken health service, and make it fit for the future."