UK
Pay rise recommended for NHS doctors
By Ashwin, UK Correspondent
Nov 6, 2004, 20:44

The supply of doctors to the NHS is still failing to meet demand, the BMA says today (Friday 5 November 2004) in its evidence to the Doctors and Dentists Review Body � the body which advises the government on doctors� pay.

Retention of adequate numbers of motivated doctors will be jeopardised if they are not rewarded in line with their workload, says the BMA. It calls for pay rises of at least 4.5% for doctors not covered by new contracts, a dramatic increase in the GP Trainers� grant, and equal pay for consultants � whether or not they have moved on to new contracts.

While GPs and consultants have started to see the benefits of new contracts, the BMA says that pay rises of at least 4.5% are necessary to ensure that other staff are not left behind. Staff and Associate Specialist (SAS) doctors, for example, are increasingly being required to work intense and antisocial hours. Negotiations on a new contract for the group have not yet started, but the BMA says an interim pay boost would improve their fragile morale.

The GPs who train tomorrow�s family doctors are undervalued, says the BMA. Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA�s General Practitioners Committee, says: "Without an increase of at least threefold the current grant of �6,385, GP trainers will vote with their feet in 2005. The essential work they do is unrecognised and undervalued. The reality is that with impending changes to the way we train doctors, the UK is in more need of GP trainers than ever before.�

For GPs working in Community Hospitals there is already a "very urgent retention crisis" says the BMA evidence. A survey of these doctors shows they have provided their service for nominal payment and now feel their good will and commitment to community hospital work is being eroded and exploited. The BMA wants formal talks about their pay at national level, but in advance of this seeks a significant uplift in their pay for the year ahead.

Dr Paul Miller, chairman of the BMA�s consultants committee says: �Consultants were annoyed and insulted by the Review Body�s decision last year to award a lower pay rise to those consultants who had chosen to stay on the old contract. We urge the Review Body to rectify this anomaly by making an award that brings these consultants back in line with their colleagues who are on the new contract. This would also remove the perverse incentive that encourages trusts to keep consultants working under the old terms and conditions when they could be receiving the benefits of being on the new contract.

�We also ask the Review Body to start looking ahead to when the three-year pay deal on the new consultant contract expires in 2006-7 as we review any improvements that will be necessary.

The evidence includes new research showing that a junior doctor in their sixth year after qualification earns on average 22% less than an accountant at the same stage of their career. It points out that tomorrow�s doctors will graduate from medical school with higher debts than in the past, yet will earn less from their first jobs as a result of new NHS working patterns.

Mr Simon Eccles, chair of the BMA�s Junior Doctors Committee, says,

�Unless we give junior doctors a decent pay rise, we risk worsening their morale at a time when the NHS desperately needs them.�



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