Junior doctors in England have voted to accept a Government pay deal worth 22.3 per cent on average over two years, bringing their long-running dispute to an end.
The British Medical Association’s (BMA) junior doctors committee (JDC) in England has accepted the Government’s pay offer, with 66 per cent of junior doctors voting in favour of the deal, the BMA said.
Junior doctors in England have taken industrial action 11 times in the past 22 months, with their last strike just days before the general election.
Their last strike, which took place from June 27 to July 2, affected 61,989 appointments, procedures and operations, according to NHS England.
The deal will see junior doctors’ pay rise by between 3.71 per cent and 5.05 per cent – averaging 4.05 per cent – 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 per cent, plus £1,000, as recommended by the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (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.
This follows a motion to the BMA’s annual policy making conference in 2023 when doctors voted in favour of a name change, it added.
A statement from the BMA said: “Junior doctors have been in dispute over more than a decade of real-terms pay cuts since October 2022, during which time they have taken 44 days of strike action.
“The pay uplift across these two years of the dispute will be 22.3 per cent on average. This is made up of an additional average 4.05 per cent for the pay year 2023/24 on top of the previously awarded average 8.8 per cent, taking last year’s pay uplift to an average of 13.2 per cent – this will be backdated to April 2023.
“The rest of the uplift comes from the recommended pay award for 2024/25 announced in July, which gave junior doctors an average 8 per cent increase across grades. Doctors remain 20.8 per cent behind in real terms compared to a doctor in 2008.
“The Government has also committed to work with the BMA to streamline the way in which junior doctors report additional hours they work, to ensure they are paid for the work they do.
“There is also agreement to reform the current system of rotational training for junior doctors as well as reviewing the training bottlenecks that previous Governments have imposed, which has manufactured the shortage of consultant and GP doctors.”
The junior doctors committee co-chairs, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, said: “It should never have taken so long to get here, but we have shown what can be accomplished with our determination and with a government willing to simply sit down and talk realistically about a path to pay restoration. One strike was one strike too many.
“This deal marks the end of 15 years of pay erosion with the beginning of two years of modest above-inflation pay rises.
“There is still a long way to go, with doctors remaining 20.8 per cent in real terms behind where we were in 2008. Mr Streeting has acknowledged our pay has fallen behind and has talked about a journey to pay restoration. He believes the independent pay review body is the right vehicle for this, and if he is right then no doctor need strike over pay in future. However, in the event the pay review body disappoints, he needs to be prepared for the consequences.
“The resident doctors committee, as we will be called, will be using the next months to prepare to build on their success so that future cohorts of doctors never again need to see the kind of pay cuts we have.
“We thank all doctors who have seen us through to this point by standing on picket lines and fighting for their worth. The campaign is not over, but we, and they, can be proud of how far we have come.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said 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.”
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