Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has urged the independent pay review bodies not to give doctors a 1% pay rise.
Although chancellor George Osborne said the pay rise would be affordable, Hunt challenged the tradition of small pay increases this year.
NHS Employers had already advised the DDRB and PRB that a 1% pay increase, which would cost £500 million, would be unaffordable.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has urged the independent pay review bodies not to give doctors a 1% pay rise.
Although chancellor George Osborne said the pay rise would be affordable, Hunt challenged the tradition of small pay increases this year.
NHS Employers had already advised the DDRB and PRB that a 1% pay increase, which would cost £500 million, would be unaffordable.
And in Hunt’s evidence to the Review Body on Doctors and Dentists’ remuneration, he said the current system is “antiquated and unfair”.
The evidence document put forward by the Department of Health states: “Putting patients at the heart of everything the NHS does means ensuring services are available seven days a week and that staff are rewarded for what they do for patients, not time served.”
The British Medical Association (BMA) said that on average, pay had risen by 5.5% for doctors since 2009, less than the increase for nurses or NHS managers.
Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the BMA Council, told the Telegraph: “We recognise fully the economic constraints the NHS is working under but the continued erosion in the real value of contracts for doctors has now reached a critical point.”
And trade union Unite said the Department of Health’s submission to the review body was the latest in the series of “strange bullying tactics”. Rachael Maskell, head of health at the union said Hunt is “trying to emotionally blackmail the staff to sacrifice their pay”.
The Review Body on Doctors and Dentists’ remuneration will make a recommendation to the government, which takes final decisions on salaries, next year.
