The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Victoria Atkins)
I am pleased to confirm to the House that the Government will move to implement the offer made on 5 March to the NHS consultant workforce in England.
Following negotiations with the British Medical Association (BMA) and Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) committees in February, their members have now voted overwhelmingly in favour to accept the revised offer made to them by around 83%.
This result demonstrates that the Government have listened carefully to the concerns of consultants in England, particularly around retention, motivation and morale, and worked closely with the unions to achieve a good outcome for patients, consultants and the taxpayer.
The core contract for consultants has not been updated for 20 years and this deal reforms and modernises the consultants’ pay structure, and will help mitigate the gender pay gap in medicine and improve equalities. The deal builds on the headline pay uplift for 2023-24. Changes to the operation of the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) will also be made to address matters raised by the BMA and HCSA.
This deal now ends damaging strike action by consultants that has had a detrimental impact on patients and the NHS and will allow consultants to focus their efforts on cutting waiting times for patients. The overall waiting list has dropped by almost 200,000 in the last five months.
I am also committed to finding a reasonable solution with SAS and junior doctors that ends industrial action. The consultants’ deal is testament to what we can achieve when both parties approach negotiations in good faith and with reasonable expectations.
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