Blog

The press release issued by the BMA on 7 August 2023.

Consultants in England will go on strike on 19th and 20th September if the Government continues to refuse to agree to pay talks and present the profession with a credible offer, the BMA announces today.

Following a two-day strike in July, the BMA has once again written to the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay,¹ to invite him to discuss pay and reform of the doctors’ pay review body, the DDRB, and put an end to strikes.

Currently, with the Government refusing to even to talk about pay – let alone any kind of credible offer being put on the table – consultants in England are already planning to take industrial action on 24th and 25th August. In keeping with the BMA consultants committee’s aim to ensure that hospitals and colleagues have sufficient time to prepare and prioritise patients who need care the most, dates for September have been announced well in advance. Once again, the September days will consist of “Christmas Day” cover, whereby all emergency services will remain in place. The fact that further dates have been announced also demonstrates consultants’ resolve and commitment to securing a better deal that begins to address the huge real-terms pay erosion they have experienced since 2008/09, and resetting the pay review process to its original principles so that the NHS can recruit and retain its most senior doctors.

Dr Vishal Sharma, BMA consultants committee chair, said:

“It is now 133 days since the Secretary of State last met with us – demonstrating the Government’s complete disregard for the expertise and value of consultants, and the very future of the health service and its patients.

“We are once again appealing to the Health Secretary to return to the table and discuss both pay and reform of the rigged pay review process, so that we can reach a point where strikes are not necessary.

“Consultants will go out on strike at the end of this month, and for a further two days in September – demonstrating our resolve and clearly signalling to Government that we’re in this for the long haul. However, neither of these strikes need to take place at all if the Government drops its intransigent position.

“The Prime Minister has blamed the record waiting lists in the NHS on staff taking a stand for their pay and conditions – a claim that has backfired spectacularly. Waiting lists were rising steadily due to the Government’s underfunding of the NHS and were at a record high before any industrial action started and even before the pandemic.

“He says that everyone must play their part to bring the waiting list down but his refusal to negotiate a deal that would ensure the NHS can recruit and retain doctors to address the current workforce crisis is the biggest barrier to achieving this.

“No consultant wants to take strike action but unless we take a stand, we risk losing our most experienced doctors, putting the very future of the NHS at risk. It’s not too late to avert these strikes and we call upon the Health Secretary to meet with us urgently.”

The press release issued by the BMA on 4 August 2023.

The press release issued by the BMA on 4 August 2023.

The BMA says a decision by NHS England to significantly reduce the fee that GPs are paid to deliver Covid vaccines undervalues general practice and threatens the safety of vulnerable patients.

The decision comes after a series of talks between the Association and NHS England, in which the BMA made clear that many practices would find it difficult to deliver the Covid vaccination programme this autumn, with a 25% fee reduction.

Responding to the news Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of the BMA’s GP Committee for England said: “During Covid, GPs and their practice teams demonstrated that they could deliver an effective world beating vaccination programme in challenging circumstances. Patients and GPs alike will despair that NHSE has announced substantial cuts to funding and resource of this national vaccination programme on the same day as news stories detail the arrival of a fresh Covid variant.

“At a time when we should be learning from history, particularly around the importance and value of protecting our patients and minimising hospital admissions this winter, it is disappointing that practices will be put in a position where they are no longer able to deliver this, though no fault of their own due to short-sighted cuts.

“The Covid vaccine delivery process is twice as long as administering ‘Flu jabs, and NHSE knows this. Our patients and communities need to be protected, and our practices resourced and supported to undertake this important work.”

The press release issued by the BMA on 3 August 2023.

Responding to plans by NHS England to allow GP practices to directly order diagnostic checks, Dr Kieran Sharrock, acting chair of GPC England at the BMA, said:

“While we acknowledge NHS England’s efforts to tackle winter pressure demands, the notion that it can do so by increasing the GP workload is frankly counteractive. These kinds of fast-tracked diagnostic referrals come with the expectation that additional work, such as performing complex investigations not part of a normal GP service, will be done prior to referral and NHSE has provided no details on how already overstretched GPs will undertake the extra work required.

“Patient referral is a complex process, and many GPs report that their referrals are being returned or blocked by the advice and guidance system with demands for further investigations, treatments, information. GPs then must re-refer and this not only increases workload but causes further delays for patients. While NHSE suggest they want to enhance GP access to direct diagnosis and shift the workload from hospitals it makes no reference to how it plans to fund the new work that will now be placed on already overwhelmed general practice.

“Wanting to free up consultant’s time is sensible but to do so by overburdening another part of the health service is illogical. It’s time our politicians stop playing whack a mole with our NHS. The entire health service is struggling to cope with demand and the only way to fix the issues at hand is to provide the NHS with adequate funding. Only then will patients be able to receive the care that they deserve in good time.”

The press release issued by the BMA on 3 August 2023.

Responding to Rishi Sunak’s comments in today’s Daily Express, Dr Emma Runswick, BMA deputy chair of council, said:

“We could not agree more with the Prime Minister when he says that ‘Most doctors just want to get on with their life’s work, caring for patients.’ But they cannot do that without proper pay, and without a properly staffed and properly resourced NHS. For him to blame the ever rising waiting lists on NHS doctors’ and nurses’ demands for fair pay shows what a poor grasp he has of the origins of the crisis facing the NHS.

“Waiting lists stood at 7 million patients even before industrial action started this year. They stood at 4 million even before the pandemic. He cannot escape the fact that his government’s failure to properly staff the NHS has led to this disaster, however much he wants to scapegoat NHS workers. This is why doctors are taking industrial action: so that we don’t lose more medics to other countries like Australia and New Zealand that pay fairer wages.

“He says he wants to be fair and reasonable, but it is not fair or reasonable for doctors to have faced pay cuts of more than a third since 2008 and be facing another real terms pay cut this year. Nor would any serious economist agree that public sector pay rises fuel inflation, no matter how many times the Government repeats it.

“He says the Government cannot tackle waiting lists alone – he is right, it can’t – but his Government can provide the doctors who will help manage those lists with a credible pay offer. Mr Sunak is at least finally addressing us directly after months of ignoring our calls to talk. But calling an end to negotiations without having once stepped in the room with us is talking at us, not to us. And given that he has already seen the determination of doctors to keep up the fight for fair pay, that is profoundly irresponsible.

“Mr Sunak is right that he can’t address his waiting lists pledge alone: he is going to need to cooperate with doctors. Our door for talks is always open.”