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Telegraph
3 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Junior doctors' union ‘fiddling figures to justify pay strikes'
Junior doctors are better off now than they were a decade ago, an analysis has found – despite union claims that they are 22 per cent poorer. The healthcare workers, now known as resident doctors, are asking for an almost 30 per cent pay rise on top of their 5.4 per cent raise this year, which itself comes on the back of a 22.3 per cent increase last summer. The 5.4 per cent average increase was the largest of any public sector profession this year, including among nurses and teachers. But the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents UK doctors, is pushing for more, balloting 55,000 members over further strikes that would cause another period of NHS disruption. Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, accused the union of 'playing games' with taxpayers' money by cherry-picking data to justify unleashing chaos in the healthcare system. The union claims that, in order for doctors to be as well paid as they were in 2008, they need another 28 per cent salary rise to compensate for being 22 per cent worse off on a like-for-like basis than 17 years ago. However, the calculations that led to that assertion have been questioned, with critics claiming the BMA was disingenuously presenting the facts to squeeze as much as possible out of public funds. Mr Tice told The Telegraph: 'Sadly, the doctors' unions never stop playing games and fiddling around with the figures. It would be nice for a change for them to have patients' care at the heart of their actions.' In its leaflet to doctors, the BMA says: 'You are not worth 22 per cent less than doctors in 2008. Your job is not 22 per cent easier. Cost of living is not 22 per cent cheaper. We must tell the Government again.' The figure comes from the BMA comparing current pay to 2008, following years of inflation-busting pay rises, and then measures inflation using the retail price index (RPI). Both these decisions have been criticised. The RPI, for example, is widely ostracised by statisticians in favour of the consumer price index (CPI), which offers more moderate inflation figures. The use of 2008 as a benchmark has also been called 'arbitrary'. Different stats provide 'very different answers' Analysis from the Nuffield Trust, a health think tank, showed that if the BMA were to use the CPI, as favoured by the Office for Budget Responsibility, and use 2014-2015 for a comparison, resident doctors would be better off now than a decade ago by almost 8 per cent. The BMA has said the choice to use the RPI, which shows a much larger real-terms pay decline, is valid because it is used by the Government to calculate student loan interest rates. Lucina Rolewicz, a Nuffield Trust researcher, said: 'You can paint a very different picture of real-terms changes to resident doctors' pay packets over time, depending on the methods you use. 'If you look at what's changed since 2008, pay erosion appears much worse than if you looked at the changes since 2015 in isolation. 'Against the CPI measure of inflation, this can make the difference of showing a 4.7 per cent fall in pay since 2008 or a 7.9 per cent increase since 2015.' Ms Rolewicz added: 'Comparing changes to pay at the same point in time, using different measures of inflation, also results in very different answers. For instance, resident doctor pay has fallen by 4.7 per cent since 2008 against CPI but has decreased by 17.9 per cent over the same period when using RPI. 'Given the importance of the debate for doctors, their colleagues, patients and taxpayers, it is crucial that we look at all the ways that pay can be seen to have changed.' Darwin Friend, the head of research at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Taxpayers will be shocked to learn that the BMA is pushing for further pay rises based on carefully selected inflation figures. 'Despite resident doctors agreeing a 22 per cent increase last year and receiving the largest above-inflation pay reward this year, the BMA is using inconsistent measures to demand even more. 'At a time when public services are under strain and resources are limited, it's vital that pay resolutions are grounded in fairness and economic reality.' A BMA spokesman said: 'The BMA's campaign is based on achieving full pay restoration back to 2008, when our pay cuts began, against RPI erosion. 'Using RPI is a measure which we, in line with the wider trade union movement, believe best reflects the real-life experience of working people in the UK, and which the Government continues to use when it suits – for example, to set student loan interest rates that resident doctors are charged. 'RPI includes housing costs, which are hugely relevant to resident doctors being moved round the country on their training rotations.'
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
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.
