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06-04-2024
LONDON: Senior doctors in England have voted to accept an improved offer from the government on pay and conditions, easing some of the pressure on Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) after months of disruptive strike action.
The British Medical Association (BMA) trade union said on Friday about 83% of senior doctors, also known as consultants, voted in favour of the offer, on a 62% turnout.
A separate long-running dispute with junior doctors, who staged five days of strikes in February, is ongoing.
Strike action over the last two years has heaped more pressure on the NHS, where more than seven million patients are on waiting lists for hospital treatment, leading to thousands of cancelled appointments and procedures.
It has also added to pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in an election year, with his Conservatives heavily trailing the opposition Labour Party in opinion polls.
“The end of consultant strike action in the NHS is excellent news for patients,” Sunak said. “It will mean we can continue making progress towards our goal of cutting the waiting lists, which have now fallen for the fourth month in a row.”
The pay deal for senior doctors, which includes changes to a doctors’ pay review body and a 2.85% uplift for those who have been senior doctors for four to seven years, comes after senior doctors rejected a previous offer in a narrow vote in January.
Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins said she was “pleased” the offer had been accepted.
“Consultants will now be able to focus on providing the highest quality care for patients and we can consolidate our progress on waiting lists – which have fallen for the past four months,” she said.
Nurses and other health workers ended their strike action last year after receiving a 5% rise and a one-off payment of £1,655.
However, the government and BMA remain a long way from solving the junior doctors’ pay dispute.
Members of the BMA in England want a 35% pay increase over the coming years.
“After years of repeated real-terms pay cuts, caused by government interference and a failure of the pay review process, consultants have spoken and now clearly feel that this offer is enough of a first step to address our concerns to end the current dispute,” BMA consultants committee chair Vishal Sharma said.
They have a fresh six-month strike mandate after talks collapsed late last year. However, no new strike dates have been announced yet.
In Wales, junior doctors remain in dispute with their government over pay and have taken strike action. Consultants and specialty and specialist (SAS) doctors have voted to strike over pay for 48 hours later this month.
Junior doctors in Northern Ireland recently went on strike over pay, while consultants are to be balloted for industrial action. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
