Latest news with #pay rise
The Sun
a day ago
- Health
- The Sun
Militant union bosses urge doctors not to tell their hospitals if they are striking – sparking fears for patient safety
MILITANT union bosses are telling doctors they do NOT have to alert their NHS trust if they are planning to strike - sparking fears for patient safety. It will make it harder for trusts to plan cover to keep hospitals running. 7 7 7 Resident doctors, formerly known as junior, are walking out for five days at the end of July as they demand a 29 per cent pay rise. Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, co-leader of the British Medical Association's resident doctors committee, accused trusts of trying to 'deceive' docs into revealing strike plans. He blasted a cancer trust which told staff it was a mandatory requirement to report action to their team each day of the strike. 'This is absolutely unacceptable,' he wrote on X. 'You do NOT have a legal responsibility to disclose whether you are striking. 'Trusts will attempt to deceive or compel you to tell them. If they do, let a BMA rep know.' 7 Legally union members do not have to tell their employer if they are going to strike. But sources said most resident doctors told their trusts whether they intended to strike - which helped hospitals to secure enough staff to keep running. One insider said: 'It shows they don't give a damn about patient safety.' Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital bosses, said: 'Given the huge disruption and impact on patient care caused by strikes it is good practice for staff to make their intentions known. 'That way hospitals plan with the best information so that fewer patients have their care cancelled and that reduces the amount of harm that the strikes will cause.' Shadow health secretary Edward Argar said: 'This is potentially a serious threat to patient safety. 'It's shocking that we don't even know how many doctors will walk out, and hospitals are being left in the dark. 'That kind of chaos puts patients and lives at risk. These strikes are irresponsible, unnecessary and wrong.' 7 One of Britain's most loved TV doctors Lord Robert Winston resigned from the union this week slamming their "highly dangerous" strikes. The 84-year-old professor, who pioneered IVF treatments in the UK, quit after more than 60 years as a member of the BMA. The last round of doctors' strikes cost the NHS £1.7 billion and led to 1.5 million cancellations. Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the Commons the average first-year doctor earns £43,275 - 'significantly more than the average full-time worker in this country'. 7 7 Some resident doctors on a 40-hour week, including a full 'on-call' rota, can earn more than £100,000 a year, according to analysis by the Telegraph. A BMA spokesperson said: 'Doctors intending to take strike action are under no obligation to inform their employers of those intentions. But with nine out of 10 of our members who voted in the ballot, voting in support of strike action, it is reasonable they will participate in the strikes if they are due to be working and trusts should plan accordingly.'
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Streeting opens way for doctors to top up pay with pensions
Wes Streeting has opened the door to cutting junior doctors' pension pots in order to raise their pay. The Health Secretary said he would discuss the policy to avert a new round of strikes that threaten to derail his landmark 10-year plan to fix the NHS. The medics, now known as resident doctors, will walk out for five days later this month in an attempt to secure a 29 per cent pay rise – months after receiving a 22 per cent boost. Downing Street on Tuesday said negotiations over pay were off the table, but Mr Streeting has suggested there could be a 'discussion' about forfeiting future state pensions in exchange for pay now. Doctors are among the public sector workers eligible for lucrative, gold-plated pensions, costing the Treasury billions of pounds each month. The Cabinet Office is understood to be considering proposals to increase pay in exchange for the Government making lower pension contributions, following an increase in workers opting out of employer pension schemes. Mr Streeting said: 'We've got this situation where the pension pot is so big that consultants lobby us to change the tax rules. 'They're taxed so heavily on the pensions because they're that valuable that they say, 'I might as well not bother working, my pension's so valuable'.' Speaking to LBC, he added: 'If the BMA want to come to me and say, 'Do you know what? Given that challenge, we would rather have a slightly less generous pension in order to have higher pay today', those are the sorts of issues you can get into in a discussion.' NHS pensions include a threshold which restricts the amount of tax-free pension growth allowed each year. It means doctors could be penalised for taking on extra work such as through initiatives to clear the backlog if they breach that amount, triggering a high rate increase in taxation that the BMA says would mean 'they are paying to work'. While the impact on pay depends on the year compared to and the inflation measure used – the BMA uses the retail price index (RPI) instead of the industry-standard consumer price index (CPI) – there is less debate about the size of doctors' pensions. They are often worth about 75 per cent of doctors' salaries in retirement and guaranteed to rise with inflation each year. Doctors enjoy index-linked, taxpayer-funded, 'defined benefit' schemes, many of which pay a proportion of the recipient's final salary from the day they retire. Under the NHS scheme, staff contribute between 5.2 per cent and 12.5 per cent of their salaries, while the state contributes 23.7 per cent each year, far outpacing most private sector arrangements. As a result, the NHS is paying out nearly £1 billion a month in staff pensions, with almost 2,000 staff receiving pensions of over £100,000 annually – a figure that has more than doubled in a year – although this includes all staff, not just doctors. Someone who started as a junior doctor eight years ago on a starting salary of about £27,000 will have already built up an annual pension of more than £8,000. A first-year resident doctor today will earn a starting salary of around £39,000 as a result of recent pay rises. The median pension claimed by GPs was £53,300 a year in 2023-24 and £40,090 for hospital doctors, according to a report by the government's pay review body on doctors and dentists. The BMA's junior doctors' committee are demanding a 29.2 per cent increase to their base pay, despite having received 5.4 per cent on average this year – more than any other public sector worker for the second year in a row. The union claims this is necessary because of real-terms cuts to doctors' pay dating back to 2008. The walkout later this month could mean more than 200,000 appointments are cancelled, based on data from previous strikes. The strike could endanger the success of Mr Streeting's 10-year plan to save the health service, which he announced last week with promises to 'bring down devastating hospital waiting lists'. Figures published on Thursday revealed the NHS waiting list had fallen to 7.36 million, just 260,000 fewer than when Labour came into power. Mr Streeting urged the BMA to abandon its walkout, saying that doctors' strikes 'ruin lives' and could lead to job cuts. He said public support for the BMA has 'collapsed' and that strikes would jeopardise the NHS's 'fragile' recovery. Ed Argar, the shadow health secretary, said Labour was paying the price for 'caving into union demands for above inflation pay rises without any conditions or strings attached'. He said: 'Labour's weakness is sadly fuelling this crisis. If they don't get a grip now, a summer of discontent and strikes risks turning into a summer of chaos, and it will be patients that pay the price.'
