JUNIOR DOCTORS CONTRACT (UPDATE)
I welcome the news that strike action has been suspended.
It is sad that junior doctors have rejected proposals which were agreed, endorsed and recommended by their own BMA leadership. This deal, negotiated and agreed between the Government and the doctors union, guarantees better training, safety and working conditions for junior doctors. It also delivers a substantial basic pay rise of around 10-11 per cent, subject to modelling for all junior doctors working legal hours, while introducing new limits on the number of hours worked, and consecutive nights and long days worked in a row. Pay increases will also be properly linked to doctors' progression and level of responsibility, and a new family support package will be introduced to help junior doctors balance their home life with work, including joint training placements for couples and a catch-up programme for those who take time out of training. Incentives for working long and unsafe hours will also be scrapped, helping to tackle locum costs and support hospitals in delivering truly 7-Day NHS services.
The leader of the BMA's junior doctors committee recommended this deal to eligible BMA members, with the hope that it would be supported by the profession as a whole. The deal was also endorsed by Royal Colleges who urged junior doctors to vote in support of it. It is extremely disappointing, therefore, that junior doctors rejected this contract, although the BMA's figures show that only forty per cent of those eligible actually voted against this contract, and that a third of BMA members didn't vote at all.
After listening to advice from Professor Dame Sue Bailey, President of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the Government has agreed that the only realistic way to end the impasse is to proceed with the phased introduction of the exact contract that was negotiated, agreed and supported by the BMA leadership. So it will be phased in from October this year to October 2017.
While this outcome is disappointing, the ambition of a 7-day NHS is still supported by Ministers - who want to work with professionals wherever possible - and is backed by a £10 billion real terms increase in the annual NHS budget.