Doctors ramp up strike threats as ballot begins despite inflation-busting 5.4% pay offer from desperate Labour ministers
Junior doctors are ramping up their threat to hold fresh strikes despite being offered an inflation-busting 5.4 per cent pay rise.
The British Medical Association (BMA), the union representing doctors, has slammed the pay rise as not going far enough to restore historical pay freezes.
Resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, have started to receive ballots for industrial action.
Labour ministers announced a series of public sector pay offers last week, including that most doctors would receive a 4 per cent pay rise.
Resident doctors are to receive an extra £750 on top of the uplift, which Health Secretary Wes Streeting said works out to be a 5.4 per cent rise.
Inflation figures published in the same week showed the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate rose by more than expected in April to 3.5 per cent.
The BMA has branded the pay offer as 'woefully inadequate' and argued resident doctors were still not having their 'lost pay' restored.
Dr Melissa Ryan, co-chair of the union's resident doctors committee, claimed the NHS had reached a 'crisis point' as she urged Mr Streeting to enter talks over pay.
'We're 23 per cent down on what doctors used to be paid in 2008,' Dr Ryan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning.
'We can seeing doctors packing their bags wanting to head overseas, where they'll be better paid with better working conditions.
'So we're reaching a crisis point here, and we really do need to have a commitment from the Government to talk to us about this.'
She added: 'We need our pay restored to 2008 levels because we're simply not worth less than doctors who were working in 2008. My work load is not 23 per cent easier.
'While it says it's a 5.4 per cent uplift, actually, with RPI inflation at 4.5 per cent, that's about 1 per cent.
'So it takes way more than a decade for us to even get close to restoring our pay.'
In a settlement last year over their previous long-running pay dispute, a rise for resident doctors was worth 22 per cent across two years.
This came at the same time as Chancellor Rachel Reeves axed winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.
When challenged over the previous bumper pay rise for resident doctors, Dr Ryan said the Government faced a 'political choice'.
'It comes down to whether the Government is willing to invest in doctors to stay in the country, to work for the NHS and give patients the world class health service that they deserve and that we did have,' she said.
'Really, it's a tough choice for them, because I understand the economic environment.
'But, if you fail to invest in doctors, then we're going to lose them overseas, and nobody's going to win.'
Dr Ryan added the BMA's latest dispute with the Government 'needn't ever get to the point of strikes' as she urged Mr Streeting to 'simply have a conversation with us'.
The Health Secretary has called on resident doctors to 'vote no' to industrial action and 'work with the Government', as he warned strikes could put efforts to rebuild the NHS at risk.
'I don't think strikes are in their interests, in patients' interests, and I certainly don't think it's in the interest of the NHS overall,' he told the BBC.
Mr Streeting added: 'I understand the anxiety and anger that resident doctors have felt and continue to feel about their part of the profession – over 14 years, they saw the NHS that they were working in slide into crisis.
'That's why, within weeks of coming into office, I was determined to resolve the pay dispute and give resident doctors a substantial pay rise.
'That's now being followed by another above-inflation average pay award of 5.4 per cent (which includes the top up).
'The result is that resident doctors have seen their pay increase by 28.9 per cent compared to three years ago.'
Resident doctor is the new term for junior doctor and refers to more than 50,000 qualified doctors working in GP practices and hospitals, from graduates to medics with a decade of experience.
Resident doctor members of the BMA have taken industrial action 11 times since 2022.
NHS England estimates the walkouts led to almost 1.5 million appointments being cancelled or rescheduled.
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