Junior doctors have warned of more strikes if pay does not keep rising despite accepting a bumper 22 per cent offer.
The medics voted to end the long-running industrial action yesterday after Labour agreed to the hike.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said it was the ‘first step’ to getting the NHS back on its feet.
But touring broadcast studios this morning Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, fueled fears that unions will bank the increases and come for more.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting (pictured right with Keir Starmer last week) said it was the ‘first step’ to getting the NHS back on its feet
He told BBC Breakfast: ‘This is the first step towards restoring pay, which is all that doctors have wanted since the beginning of this campaign.
‘As you’ll know, we’ve had a huge pay cut since 2008 but this marks a change in that trajectory.
‘Doctors who were being paid just over £15-an-hour before this offer will now be paid a little over £17-an-hour, so it does mark an improvement, but the journey is not over.’
He added: ‘We want to hold on to our doctors, we want medicine to be an attractive profession so that they don’t escape to places like Canada and Australia and New Zealand.
‘And this offer does not do everything in one go, but we’ve never asked for everything in one go, so as long as we continue on that journey, then we can inspire confidence for doctors to stay and to build back up our workforce so that we can bring healthcare back to a high quality system that it used to be.’
Dr Trivedi continued: ‘We will expect pay uplifts each and every year, as we have done in the past.
‘And if those pay uplifts don’t occur in a timely fashion and at the pace that our members have asked for to restore our pay, then that’s when we’ll be going to the Government, we’ll be going to Mr Streeting and saying: ‘you wanted to inspire confidence in this process, this hasn’t inspired confidence in this process, what can we do to alleviate that?’
‘And if those communications break down, then we will be thinking about going back into dispute and striking again if we need to, but that’s always a last case resort, and something we don’t want to have to do.’
It comes as junior doctors in England voted to accept a Government pay deal , bringing their long-running dispute to an end.
Some 66 per cent of junior doctors in England voted in favour of the deal, which is worth 22.3 per cent on average over two years
They had taken industrial action 11 times in the past 22 months, with their last strike just days before the general election.
The last strike, which took place from June 27 to July 2, affected 61,989 appointments, procedures and operations.
The deal will see junior doctors’ pay rise by between 3.71 per cent and 5.05 per cent – averaging 4.05 per cent – on top of their existing pay award for 2023/24. This will be backdated to April 2023.
Each part of the pay scale will also be uplifted by 6 per cent, plus £1,000, as recommended by the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB), with an effective date of April 1, 2024.
Both rises mean a doctor starting foundation training in the NHS will see base pay increase to £36,600, up from about £32,400.
A full-time doctor entering specialty training will have basic pay rise to £49,900 from about £43,900.
Outside the pay negotiations, the Government has agreed that from September 18, ‘junior doctors’ across the UK will be known as ‘resident doctors’ to better reflect their expertise, the BMA said.
Touring broadcast studios this morning Dr Vivek Trivedi (right), co-chair of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, fueled fears that unions will bank the increases and come for more
Mr Streeting said yesterday he is ‘pleased’ the BMA has accepted the Government’s pay deal.
He said: ‘We inherited a broken NHS, the most devastating dispute in the health service’s history, and negotiations hadn’t taken place with the previous ministers since March.
‘Things should never have been allowed to get this bad. That’s why I made ending the strikes a priority, and we negotiated an end to them in just three weeks.
‘I am pleased that our offer has been accepted, ending the strikes ahead of looming winter pressures on the NHS.
‘This marks the necessary first step in our mission to cut waiting lists, reform the broken health service, and make it fit for the future.’
