NHS warning: avoid risky behaviour
The coming week is likely to be “the most disruptive period of [industrial] action in NHS history,” warned Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s medical director today, as junior doctors kickstarted a fresh round of strikes, lasting until Saturday morning.
Brits are being warned to avoid “risky behaviour” as over 47,600 members of the British Medical Association (BMA) stage a walk out, which will affect all hospital departments in England.
“Junior doctor” is a broad term covering the entire cohort of staff below consultant level. This means junior doctor pay ranges anywhere from £29,000 a year for those fresh out of university to around £77,000 for medics with up to a decade of experience.
In their absence, consultants, alongside pharmacists, GPs, paramedics and nurses, are all being drafted in to work in emergency departments but, according to Powis, “cover is very fragile” given how many staff are on annual leave for the Easter holidays.
Almost all non-urgent care has been postponed, which could result in between 250-350,000 cancellations of non-emergency operations and appointments. Coming on top of the Covid backlog, this puts even greater pressure on the NHS.
NHS bosses are pleading for the government and unions to get round the table and negotiate. But there appears to have been no progress made since last month’s junior doctor strike.
The BMA hasn’t budged on its initial demand for a 35% pay rise for junior doctors. It still maintains this is “not a tall ask” but simply “pay restoration” given the 26% real-terms cut in their pay over the last 15 years.
Meanwhile, the government says there will be no pay talks until the BMA abandons its 35% starting position. This “unreasonable” figure, insists Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, would result in some doctors receiving a pay rise of “over £20,000”.
A Number 10 spokesperson has also described the 35% figure as “completely out of step with pay settlements in other parts of the public sector.”
This is most likely to be a reference to the progress the government made last month with 14 health unions representing all NHS staff except for doctors, who are on different contracts. After weeks of negotiations with Barclay and Co, these unions – representing nurses, ambulance staff, physiotherapists, midwives, cleaners and porters – are now recommending that their members accept a 5% pay rise, plus a one-off payment of at least £1,655 to top up the past year’s pay awards.
These NHS staff who are union members have until Friday to vote on whether to accept it. If, as is likely, they do accept the offer, the BMA may face heightened pressure to drop its 35% pay rise demand for doctors.
If the BMA and government aren’t able to come to a resolution by themselves, Matthew Taylor, the NHS Confederation’s chief executive, has urged both sides to call in mediators, such as the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, to help advance the talks. ACAS is an independent public body which acts like a referee, and helped to break the deadlock after junior doctors went on strike in 2016. Meeting jaw to jaw is always better than war.
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