BMA Calls For Negotiations Following Pay Cut For Junior Doctors, UK

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 11 Apr 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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The BMA has requested an urgent meeting with NHS employers to open negotiations with junior doctors.

The move follows this week's announcement of below-inflation pay awards for hospital doctors. The BMA's Junior Doctors Committee was particularly angered by the refusal of the doctors' pay review body to recommend a compensatory uplift for first year junior doctors, who have lost their right to live on hospital premises free of charge from this year.

The BMA estimates that the entitlement to free accommodation was worth an average of £400 a month, and that first year junior doctors have had an effective 20% pay cut. In the past, the government has cited its existence as an argument against increasing doctors' salaries.

The BMA's annual conference of medical students last weekend voted in favour of public protests if NHS employers, the body that represents NHS trusts, does not engage in negotiations, or if an acceptable agreement cannot be reached.

Mr Ram Moorthy, Chairman of the BMA's Junior Doctors Committee, says:

"We're urgently calling on the NHS to engage with us on an issue which is causing a huge amount of ill feeling and anger. Hospital accommodation was often of a low standard but it was one of the few benefits of working as a junior doctor.

"Its removal comes at a time when medical students' debts are growing and junior doctors' pay packets are shrinking. It's completely detrimental to the drive to encourage low income groups into the medical profession.

"Doctors at all levels are feeling increasingly undervalued after another year of below-inflation pay rises."

In a letter to NHS Employers, the BMA's Junior Doctors Committee requests talks to discuss the options available. It is calling for either a salary increase, or for free accommodation to be reinstated.

http://www.bma.org.uk