Hunt announces imposition of junior doctors’ contract

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has given a statement to Parliament regarding the introduction of the new junior doctors’ contract, after the BMA rejected the government’s final offer to end the dispute.

Hunt said: “Under the existing contract doctors can receive the same pay for working quite different amounts of unsocial hours; doctors not working nights can be paid the same as those who do, and if one doctor works just one hour over the maximum shift length it can trigger a 66 per cent pay rise for all doctors on that rota.”

He added that despite enduring arduous negotiations to achieve an agreeable contract, progress in reforming it had been slow. Hunt referenced Sir David Dalton’s advise that a ‘negotiated solution is not realistically possible’.

Hunt said: “Along with other senior NHS leaders and supported by NHS Employers, NHS England, NHS Improvement, the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, he has asked me to end the uncertainty for the service by proceeding with the introduction of a new contract that he and his colleagues consider both safer for patients and fair and reasonable for junior doctors.”

In his speech, Hunt outlined guidelines for the new contract maintaining that the maximum number of hours that can be worked in one week will be reduced from 91 to 72; the maximum number of consecutive nights will be reduced from seven to four; the maximum number of consecutive long days will be reduced from seven to five; and assured that no doctor will ever be rostered on consecutive weekends.

He said: “The new contract will give additional pay to those working Saturday evenings from 5pm, nights from 9pm to 7am, and all day on Sunday. Plain time hours will now be extended from 7am to 5pm on Saturdays. However, I said the government was willing to be flexible on Saturday premium pay and we have been: those working one in four or more Saturdays will receive a pay premium of 30 per cent, that is higher on average than that available to nurses, midwives, paramedics and most other clinical staff.”

The Health Secretary admitted that although he recognised this was still ‘a reduction compared to current rates’, the move is ‘necessary to ensure hospitals can afford additional weekend rostering’.

However, he added: “After updated modelling I can tell the House these changes will allow an increase in basic salary of not 11 per cent as previously thought but 13.5 per cent.”

Hunt concluded: “We have committed an extra £10billion to the NHS this Parliament, but with that extra funding must come reform to deliver safer services across all seven days. That is not just about changing doctors’ contracts: we will also need better weekend support services such as physiotherapy, pharmacy and diagnostic scans; better seven-day social care services to facilitate weekend discharging; and better primary care access to help tackle avoidable weekend admissions. Today we are taking a decisive step forward to help deliver our manifesto commitment, and I commend this statement to the House.”