Junior doctors are warning that further strikes are on the horizon if their demands for “full pay restoration” are not met, despite a recent pay deal that awarded them a 22.3 per cent increase over two years.
The British Medical Association (BMA) members have agreed to accept the deal offered by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, but Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of the junior doctors’ committee, said the pay rise was a “compromise” and only the “first step” towards achieving their goal of restoring pay to pre-inflation levels.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Dr Trivedi said that while the current deal was an improvement, it is far from sufficient to fully address the pay gap that junior doctors believe has widened over the years.
“Mr Streeting has acknowledged that our pay has fallen behind inflation,” Dr Trivedi explained. “If the Government does not continue our journey to full pay restoration, then they will find doctors back in dispute.”
Dr Trivedi highlighted that the recent increase takes a doctor earning £15 an hour to £17 an hour, but insisted that the journey to fair pay is still incomplete. He warned that if future pay awards fail to address the remaining gap, the Government would face further industrial action.
Despite accepting the 22.3 per cent deal, junior doctors remain adamant that further strikes could be necessary unless the Government follows through on promises of restoring pay fully, a move they argue is vital to keeping doctors in the NHS and ensuring the profession remains attractive in the UK.
The BMA had previously argued that junior doctors’ pay had fallen by 26 per cent in real terms over the last decade, leading to severe dissatisfaction within the profession.
Wes Streeting and the Labour Government, meanwhile, hope that the independent pay review bodies will now play a key role in awarding future pay increases, with the aim of preventing further disputes. However, the threat of further walkouts still looms large, putting continued pressure on the NHS as it struggles to recover from the aftermath of the pandemic and ongoing challenges.
The situation has left many concerned about the long-term impact on patient care, with more strikes likely to worsen the backlog of treatments and surgeries across the health service.
Photo by Roger Blackwell. Junior Doctors outside Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ CC BY 2.0
