Pandemic compensation for junior doctors
By Gemma Raw
The government and NHS Employers have agreed that junior doctors who experienced training delays during the COVID-19 pandemic will start on a higher pay point when becoming consultants.
The move, which is the result of lobbying by the British Medical Association (BMA), will lessen the impact on pay and pensions for those currently working in junior doctor roles whose professional development was hampered during the pandemic.
BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs Dr Sarah Hallett and Dr Mike Kemp issued the following statement: "We believe these agreements on pay are both fair and reasonable given the huge contributions of doctors throughout the pandemic, and we welcome the fact that ministers have recognised the specific impact the pandemic has had, and will continue to have, on junior doctors' future earnings."
The BMA has also secured a commitment to the extension of Section 1 transitional pay protection until 31 March 2023. As part of the 2016 contract deal, junior doctors who worked under the 2002 contract or applied for their training programme ahead of the 2016 contract implementation are entitled to pay protection. Section 1 protection is for doctors who were at the earlier stages of their training at the time of implementation of the 2016 contract.
In 2021 the BMA published a handbook on the 2016 contract, explaining in detail the terms and conditions of service for doctors and dentists in training in England. Download it here.
Junior doctors' pay
The announcement of an uplift in future earnings will come as cold comfort to those junior doctors who are in the earlier stages of their training. The government recently announced that it would not be offering junior doctors the same pay rise as other NHS staff such as nurses and midwives. As part of a four-year pay deal agreed in 2019, junior doctors are set to receive a 2% pay rise in 2022-23, however, this was agreed before the pandemic hit and when inflation was below 2%. Those working in other NHS jobs will receive upwards of 4%.
With inflation currently at over 9% and expected to get even higher, this is a major blow for junior doctors, many of whom were already feeling 'overworked, underpaid and undervalued' according to the BMA. Their calculations show that pay awards for junior doctors in England from 2008/09 to 2021/22 have delivered a real terms (RPI) pay cut of 26.1%,
"Without fair pay, the government risks doctors leaving to better-paid professions or jobs abroad where they feel valued," commented Dr Hallett and Dr Kemp. The NHS already struggles to recruit and retain doctors, and this will worsen a vicious cycle of poorer patient care and longer waiting lists, as those that remain become even more burnt out and exhausted."
The BMA has said that it will ballot junior doctor members in England for industrial action if the Government does not commit to full restoration of junior doctors’ pay to levels equivalent to 2008/09 by the end of September 2022.
