Top doctors in England want at least three times their normal pay to cover for their junior counterparts when they strike later this month, it has been reported. According to the BBC, the British Medical Association (BMA) is advising its members to ask for as much as £262 an hour to cover night shifts in the absence of junior doctors.
Junior doctors are set to walk out for three days between March 13 and 16 in a dispute over pay. The BBC said that the demands for extra pay to cover shifts during the strike had been called "unreasonable" by NHS chiefs.
The report said that the BMS was recommending that its members ask for £158 an hour to cover day shifts. It reasoned that pay should be more for work outside of normal contracts.
The basic pay for a consultant is between £88,000 and £119,000 a year. That is equivalent to between £42 to £57 an hour, based on a 40-hour week. However, pay can be around £20,000 higher than the basic salaries once extras for being on call, doing night shifts and hitting performance targets is included.
According to the BBC, the BMA has advised doctors to ask for £158 an hour to work during the day, £210 an hour to work in the evening and £262 an hour to work overnight. It said the BMA had recommended that consultants who are asked to move from their normal area of work or have to do extra shifts to cover for striking junior doctors should use the pay rates.
Around 40% of the workforce is classed as a junior doctor. Two thirds of those are believed to be BMA members. They are set to strike between 6am on March 13 and 6am on March 16, across both planned and emergency care. Junior doctors want pay rises to cover 26% cuts since 2008.
According to the BBC, Danny Mortimer, the chief executive of NHS Employers, said health bosses had sympathy for doctors, but that was being "eroded" by the unilateral demands being made for premium pay. He added that NHS chiefs had not been consulted on the rates.
Mr Mortimer said: "If their dispute is with the Government with regards to both pay and pensions, it seems unreasonable to act without first seeking any kind of agreement with employers."
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The rates are included on a BMA rate card that was first introduced last year after some NHS trusts tried to cap the amount they were willing to pay for overtime.
BMA consultants leader Dr Vishal Sharma said it was right the rate card was used for the strikes, telling the BBC: "We wholeheartedly support and stand in solidarity with our junior doctor colleagues in their industrial action and pursuit of full pay restoration. Consultants, having themselves experienced real-terms pay cuts, know all too well the damaging impact pay erosion has on morale and staff retention.
"On strike days it is the responsibility of employers to ensure that services are staffed safely, and they have been given adequate notice of when the action is set to take place. The BMA rate card rates are recommended for all work undertaken outside of the normal contract, and they are therefore appropriate to use for covering absent junior doctors as this work is quite clearly extra-contractual. These rates therefore reflect the market value of doctors' work."
