Above-inflation pay offer could end consultant strikes, leader suggests

Consultants in England would be willing to accept a pay offer of above 11.4% for this year to end the current impasse over industrial action, the chair of the BMA Consultants Committee has said. Such a pay rise would be above inflation for 2022-23 and about what junior doctors in Scotland accepted in August.1

This week, in an escalation of standoffs over pay erosion, consultants and junior doctors in England took part in strike action together for the first time. Consultants began two days of strikes on 19 and 20 September, providing “Christmas Day” levels of cover, with emergency services running as normal. Junior doctors were due to join the strike on 20 September, also with “Christmas Day” cover. Junior doctors were then due to continue with full walkouts on 21 and 22 September.

On the eve of the strikes Vishal Sharma, chair of the BMA’s Consultants Committee, wrote to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the health and social care secretary, Steve Barclay, setting out fresh detail about consultants’ demands. In addition to its central demand for the government to fully restore the independence of the doctors’ pay review body (DDRB) to create a “fair mechanism” for ending real terms pay cuts, Sharma wrote, “We are seeking a pay package for 2023-24 above the level of RPI [retail price index] inflation for the 12 months until April 2023 (the date at …