The government is planning for a 2.8% pay rise for doctors next year, the Department of Health and Social Care has disclosed.
In its submission to the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB), the department said that it had budgeted for an 2.8% pay rise for doctors and other NHS workers, which it viewed “as a reasonable amount” based on the economic and fiscal context.1 But the BMA said that the evidence indicated a poor grasp of the “unresolved issues” facing doctors after two years of industrial action. It said that there was a “very real risk” of further strike action if pay erosion was not addressed.
The BMA’s chair of council Philip Banfield said, “It [2.8%] is far below the current rate of inflation experienced by doctors in their daily lives and does not move significantly closer to restoring the relative value of doctors’ pay lost over the past 15 years. When doctors accepted their pay offers this summer, the government was under no illusion about the need to continue to reverse the effects of pay erosion, the path set to achieve that in future pay rounds, and the very real risk of further industrial action if this was not achieved.”
The DDRB will now consider the evidence submitted before making its recommendations at some stage next year. It could still recommend an alternative pay rise for doctors, although governments can and have opted not to implement recommendations in the past.
Banfield said that the “sub-inflationary” suggestion of 2.8% would serve as a “test” of the DDRB’s independence, following an agreement by the previous government as part of the consultants’ pay deal to reform the pay review process. A key part of this was agreeing that the DDRB should take into account what has happened to doctors’ pay in the past when making current recommendations.2
“The BMA expects [the DDRB] to take this opportunity to show it is now truly independent, to take an objective view of the evidence it receives from all parties—not just the government—and to make an offer that reflects the value of doctors’ skills and expertise in a global market and that moves them visibly further along the path to full pay restoration,” Banfield said.
In its submission, the department highlighted the cost of delivering on health policy commitments including delivering an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments a year to reduce waiting lists across England. “The government is carefully balancing delivery of services for patients and ensuring staff are paid fairly and have supportive working conditions that enables delivery of the best patient care,” it said.
