Labour has offered junior doctors a staggering pay deal that could see their incomes rise by 20 per cent over two years.
The British Medical Association’s (BMA) junior doctors’ committee has reportedly agreed to put the offer to its members. If accepted, it will end months of crippling strikes over pay.
The agreement provides for an increase of between 8.8 percent and 10.3 percent, as well as a retroactive increase of 4.05 percent for 2023/24.
This is in addition to a 6 per cent pay rise for 2024/2025, topped up by a £1,000 payment. This equates to a salary increase of between 7 and 9 percent.
The total package represents a pay rise of around 20 per cent, which could cost the taxpayer around £1 billion.
In the latest blow to patients, 67,034 hospital appointments in England were rescheduled due to a five-day strike by junior doctors from the British Medical Association (BMA) earlier this week.
Junior doctors in their first year now have a basic salary of £32,300, while those with three years’ experience earn £43,900. Senior doctors earn £63,100.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister told reporters: “As we have said before, we are committed to working towards a solution, to resolving this dispute, but I cannot go into detailed comments on the negotiations.
‘We have been honest with the public and the industry about the economic circumstances we face.
“But the Government is determined to do the hard work necessary to finally end these strikes.”
The strike has been “hugely disruptive both to patients and the impact on waiting lists and we have said we are committed to finding a solution and resolving this dispute,” they added.
The BMA has been around for a long time She said her demands are for a “pay restoration” given that previous NHS pay rises for doctors have not kept pace with inflation since 2008.
However, there is no guarantee that members will accept the new offer, as the union had pushed for a 35 percent increase.
MailOnline has contacted the BMA for comment.
This comes after the strike launched by the group of doctors earlier this month led to the postponement of 61,989 appointments, procedures and operations, with 23,001 staff absent from work at the peak of the five-day action.
He This means that 1,486,258 appointments have been postponed since the NHS strike (affecting staff such as doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics) began in late 2022.
But not all NHS trusts have provided figures on cancelled appointments, meaning the true scale of disruption is expected to be higher.
Junior doctors in their first year of training currently earn a basic salary of £32,300, while those with three years’ experience earn £43,900 and senior doctors £63,100.
Conservative ministers previously offered junior doctors a pay rise of 8.8 per cent, on average, for the 2023/24 financial year.
However, the increase was larger for first-year physicians, who were given a 10.3 percent raise.
Ministers insisted this was the final offer, but former Health Secretary Victoria Atkins offered doctors an additional three per cent on top of this increase.
The union then claimed that this increased sum remained “completely insufficient”.
This comes as the government is also expected to confirm a 5.5 per cent pay rise for other NHS workers, including nurses, today after accepting recommendations from the independent pay review body.
This wage increase affects around 1.3 million employees.
Doctors and dentists are expected to receive a six per cent pay rise, with senior NHS managers getting a five per cent increase.
However, GPs have threatened to paralyse the NHS after putting family doctors to a vote on strike action.
Voting, which closed at noon today, could begin as early as Thursday.
It is feared that up to three million GP consultations a month could disappear if all GPs were to comply with BMA demands to reduce numbers to just 25 a day.