On 18 May 2016, a new contract was agreed subject to the support of BMA junior doctors in a referendum.
The government reached an agreement with the BMA on a new junior doctors’ contract which is an important step forward in the delivery of our promise to patients of a 7-day NHS.
The new contract is better for patients, doctors and the NHS. It will introduce better training, safety and working conditions for junior doctors. It is better for the NHS because it supports hospitals to deliver truly 7-day services and crucially, Saturdays and Sundays will be treated as regular working days. And most importantly, it is better for patients as they know that they will have access to a great and improving service every day of the week.
I am glad that the BMA came back to the table to negotiate and worked with the government to reach a deal which I hope will now be supported by the profession as a whole. I implore all junior doctors to vote in favour of the new contract which I believe is:
Better for patients – who will have access to a great and improving service 7-days a week. These changes are the most significant change to the contract in seventeen years. The changes ensure the NHS is shaped around the needs of patients who can’t choose what day of the week they fall unwell;
Better for junior doctors – guaranteeing better training, safety and working conditions. Junior doctors working legal hours will receive a basic pay rise of around 10 to 11 per cent, subject to modelling. New limits on hours worked, consecutive nights and long days will also be introduced. A new family support plan will help balance home and work, offering catch-up programmes for those who take time out of training for family reasons. And;
Better for the NHS – linking pay progression to attainment, tackles locum costs and scraps unsafe incentives for long hours. There will be a fundamental shift in the way doctors are paid for weekend work so it is a third less expensive for hospitals to roster doctors over the weekend. By introducing Saturday and Sundays plain time rates and a sliding scale replacing unsocial hour payments high standards of care will be enabled at an affordable rate.
It is deeply regrettable that patients had to endure eight days of industrial action which saw 125,000 operations cancelled so I am very pleased that the government and the BMA returned to the negotiating table, and that the BMA showed willingness to negotiate on weekend pay rates.
The government is committed to a 7-day NHS and ensuring patients can access great care every day of the week. The government recently announced critical reforms and investment in general practice and the ambition for a 7-day NHS is backed by an additional investment of £10 billion real terms towards the NHS’s annual budget which already exceeds £116 bilion.