Junior doctors could strike again if their demands are not met in the future, a union leader warned on Tuesday after medics voted to accept the Government’s pay offer.
The British Medical Association (BMA) on Monday announced that two-thirds of junior doctors had voted for a deal that would see their pay rise by 22 per cent over two years.
It brings an end to an 18-month dispute which saw doctors taking part in 11 rounds of strike action, causing widespread disruption to NHS services and hampering efforts to reduce the elective waiting list.
But Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, said “the journey is not over” and suggested that strikes could take place in future over pay under a Labour Government.
He told BBC Breakfast: “We will expect pay uplifts each and every year, as we have done in the past.
“And if those pay uplifts don’t occur in a timely fashion and at the pace that our members have asked for to restore our pay, then that’s when we’ll be going to the Government and saying: ‘you wanted to inspire confidence in this process, this hasn’t inspired confidence in this process, what can we do to alleviate that?’
“If those communications break down, then we will be thinking about going back into dispute and striking again if we need to, but that’s always a last resort, and something we don’t want to have to do.”
Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairman of the Junior Doctors’ Committee, told LBC that the vote showed that there is “clearly an appetite to show the Government that this deal does fall short in a third of our members’ expectations”.
“If the pay review body does its job and respects and understands that medicine is no longer an attractive career, as it once used to be, and that it begins to try to fix the retention issues that we have, then there will be no need for further strike action,” he said.
“But if, as we see over the last 14 to 15 years, there’s more pay erosion, with real-terms pay cuts, and I’m afraid we’ll have no option but to go back into dispute, because Mr Streeting would have over-promised and undelivered.”
Rises mean a doctor starting foundation training in the NHS will see base pay increase to £36,600, up from about £32,400.
A full-time doctor entering specialty training will have basic pay rise to £49,900 from about £43,900.
The deal includes a four per cent backdated pay rise for 2023-24, on top of the existing increase for the last financial year worth an average of nine per cent.
A further pay rise worth about eight per cent is being offered for 2024-25, as recommended by an independent pay review body.
That brings the total on average over the two years to roughly 22 per cent for each junior doctor, with the lowest paid set to receive the largest increases.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he is “pleased” the British Medical Association (BMA) has accepted the Government’s pay deal.
He added: “We inherited a broken NHS, the most devastating dispute in the health service’s history, and negotiations hadn’t taken place with the previous ministers since March.
“Things should never have been allowed to get this bad. That’s why I made ending the strikes a priority, and we negotiated an end to them in just three weeks.
“I am pleased that our offer has been accepted, ending the strikes ahead of looming winter pressures on the NHS.
“This marks the necessary first step in our mission to cut waiting lists, reform the broken health service, and make it fit for the future.”
