Junior doctors reject pay deal and prepare for strike ballot

Jeremy Hunt has promised junior doctors an 11 per cent pay rise in a last-ditch bid to stop them going on strike.

We know that we can only do this with the help and support of doctors.

“In particular, that the pay banding system for junior doctors needs to be reviewed; that, as has happened in other sectors, pay premia for weekend and out of hours working need to be changed; and that, for junior doctors, pay should be linked to moving to a post with a higher level of responsibility”.

Johann Malawana, the BMA’s junior doctor committee chairman, said: “Without the reasonable assurances junior doctors require, the BMA has been left with little option but to continue with plans to ballot members on industrial action”.

Today, junior doctors received a letter from Hunt, an attempt to persuade them to vote against taking industrial action.

Among what he called the “fundamental flaws” in the latest offer was the lack of recognition of unsocial hours as premium time, as the proposed new contract would still reduce the number of hours that are classed as unsocial hours by re-classifying weekday evenings and Saturdays as plain time.

Last night Jeremy Hunt failed to dispel the threat of strike action after doctors branded Mr Hunt’s offer “misleading”.

This means that a newly qualified junior doctor can expect to start on a basic salary of £25,500, compared to £22,636 in the current contract, which will advance through five pay progression points, reaching £55,000 in the final stage of training compared to £47,175 under current conditions.

One week ago I stood shoulder to shoulder with 3,000 junior doctors, consultants, GPs, medical students, nursing staff and other allied health care professionals in Victoria Gardens to oppose what I believe is an unsafe and unfair contract.

No increase in basic pay was included in the Department of Health’s initial proposals.

In another significant step away from the status quo, pay rises for junior doctors will now be performance-based rather than in automatic yearly increments regardless of achievement.

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, commented that they now want to work with the BMA to come to a conclusion by the New Year. Change to working patterns is never easy, but my strong preference is to get round the table and agree with doctors how we deliver our manifesto pledge in a way that they consider fair, and my door remains open for negotiations.

“We are clear that there is an imperative to reform the contract – and so we are setting out a clear timetable for implementation”.

There are also fears that numerous contractual safeguards protecting trainee doctors from working excessive hours will be removed and that doctor’s changing their speciality will result in them being put back to the bottom of the pay scale.