Government meddling cuts consultants’ pay by a third
By Robin Stride
Consultants’ earnings for their NHS work have dropped by more than one third in the last 14 years due to Government meddling in the ‘independent’ pay review process, according to a new report.
Fiddling by the four governments of the UK has resulted in their earnings falling by a staggering 34.9% in real terms since 2008.
According to a 22-page BMA dossier, in its current iteration, the Government has interfered with the pay review process by:
Imposing public sector pay freezes, essentially preventing the Doctors and Dentists Review Body (DDRB) from making recommendations in 2010, 2011 and 2012;
Imposing public sector pay caps, limiting the DDRB to pay uplifts of 1% in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 despite inflation being far higher;
Imposing restrictions on the DDRB in terms of ‘NHS affordability’, as set out in the UK Government’s own arbitrary spending reviews ‘via remit letters at the start of each annual review process, including arbitrary inflation targets such as the existing 2% target in an environment where RPI inflation is almost 15%’;
Regularly ignoring the set timetable, submitting its own evidence late and so allowing it the chance to respond to submissions from unions who adhere to the timetable;
Dr Vishal Sharma
Frequently delaying DDRB report publication by many months. All four UK governments have occasionally ignored or reduced the level of the DDRB’s pay award recommendations.
BMA consultants committee chairman Dr Vishal Sharma claimed the report exposed the supposed independence of the pay review body as a ‘sham’ designed to provide government with deniability while it directly meddles with pay outcomes.
He said: ‘Simply going back to the DDRB to ask for another recommendation on pay will not solve anything. For more than a decade, the pay review process has been constantly interfered with by the Government, resulting in year after year of pay cuts for doctors.
‘Ministers cannot continue to argue that the DDRB is independent while doctors’ pay falls off a cliff and we have thousands of medical vacancies.
‘If the pay review process is to have any hope in restoring the confidence of doctors and remedying the dire staffing shortages that we face across the NHS, then it must be urgently reformed in line with its founding principles.’
Consultants and juniors’ representatives in England and Wales have withdrawn from the pay review process this year. The BMA is meanwhile due this month to consider possible full withdrawal from the DDRB.