Pay award not recognising or rewarding hard work

Some senior doctors have criticised their annual pay award for failing to redress more than a decade of effective real-term cuts and attaching strings to the increase.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced the pay rise of 2.5 per cent for consultants and 3.5 per for associate specialist and specialty doctors in England on the recommendation of the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration.

SAS doctors will, however, only receive their recommended 3.5 per cent rise if they agreed to a new contract deal, withy their pay remaining at 2.5 per cent until then.

Whilst Hancock told Parliament that the pay rise recognised ‘the hard work and dedication’ of doctors, Rob Harwood, BMA consultants committee chair, has rebuffed the claim, stressing that it was clear the government had ‘not recognised nor rewarded the work and commitment of many experienced and senior doctors’.

He said: “The pay uplift does not provide any mechanism to address historic underpayments to doctors. There is also a failure to recognise the huge additional tax bills generated by annual allowance and no account has been taken of the high rate of pension contributions.

“Many senior doctors’ income is being significantly impacted by the punitive pension taxation, so this low pay rise merely adds to the overall position of doctors being undervalued and effectively paying to go to work.”