Hunt guarantees junior doctors' pay and working hours in bid to avoid strikes

Hunt offered these reassurances in a letter to Dr Johann Malawana, chair of the junior doctors’ committee at the British Medical Association (BMA). Hunt and Malawana met on 30 September to discuss the ongoing contract disputes. This letter from Hunt appears to be his formal response to that meeting, which aimed to avoid strike action.

On the issue of working hours, Hunt told Malawana that the standard working week would remain 7am-7pm Monday to Friday, instead of the proposed extension of 7am-10pm Monday to Saturday.

Hunt said: “I can give an absolute guarantee to junior doctors that this contract will not impose longer hours. No junior doctor working full time will be expected to work on average more than 48 hours a week. I want to see a work review system with teeth that ensures that juniors are not exploited and that addresses issues of overworking if they arise.”

Junior doctors pay was also a point of contention, with junior doctors expecting to lose between 15 and 40 per cent under the new contract.

Hunt gave his ‘categorical assurance’ that he is not seeking to save money from the junior doctors’ paybill, but that he wanted to see an end to to automatic annual increments, with pay rises instead based on moving through the stages of training and taking on more responsibility. He claimed that this change would be ‘cost neutral’, not cost saving.

The Health Secretary also addressed fears that junior doctors would lose overtime pay for working antisocial shifts, saying that he could ‘absolutely guarantee’ that average pay would not reduce.

Explaining his plans for this new pay structure, Hunt said: “I want the new contract to improve patient safety by better supporting a seven day NHS. The Government was elected on a manifesto commitment to ensure that the quality of NHS care is the same across the week. So together with NHS staff, we must eradicate the ‘weekend effect’ of excess deaths in NHS hospitals. For junior doctors, this means some increase in plain time working (backed up with an increase in basic pay) and a replacement of the banding system, and a move to paying for hours worked, with additional pay for unsocial hours. Within this, I can give an assurance that nights and Sundays will continue to attract unsocial hours payments. I would be pleased to discuss in negotiations how far plain time working extends on Saturdays.”

Malawana responded to the letter saying that while it was encouraging, some questions still remain. He said: “It is encouraging that the health secretary has finally recognised the vital role that junior doctors play as tomorrow’s leaders across the NHS. However, questions still remain and we are urgently seeking clarification on the points raised in the letter.”

Sue Bailey, the chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, welcomed the letter. She said: “We are pleased to see the initiative from the secretary of state to seek to unblock the impasse on the junior doctors’ contract.

“The current concerns around the [proposed] contract reflect a strong feeling from our trainees that they are not valued in the NHS. Aside from the specific outcome on the contract, the academy believes this underlying issue has to be addressed and [medical royal] colleges are keen to play their part.”

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