Jeremy Hunt is to offer junior doctors an 11% rise in basic pay in an eleventh-hour intervention to stop them going on strike just as the NHS is preparing for its most pressured time of year.
Hunt hopes that the 11% uplift will persuade junior doctors to accept him scrapping the banding system, which dictates how much juniors are paid, depending on their responsibilities, hours worked and how often they are on call.
Banding currently gives junior doctors 40% to 50% more money on top of their basic salary. Hunt will argue that trainees will still be able to earn the same money as now, despite banding disappearing, by still receiving extra money from the on-call supplement, out-of-hours payments, “flexible pay premia” – financial inducements to persuade juniors to choose certain branches of medicine suffering from major shortages of doctors – additional rostered hours and the extra 11%.
Junior doctors heavily involved in the dispute and some senior doctors who lead medical royal colleges believe that without major concessions from Hunt as many as 80% or even 90% of trainee doctors – all those below consultant grade – will vote for strike action, industrial action short of a strike, or both in Thursday’s ballot.
Denis Campbell, the Guardian’s health editor, writes:
“Hunt’s plan appears to be that junior doctors will earn the same as now but in a different way. That is, they will still receive the same extra 40%-50% on top of the basic pay they currently get through the banding system but, from next year, that same sum will come from a combination of on-call supplements, “flexible pay premia” (monetary inducements to attract trainee medics into areas of medicine bedevilled by doctor shortages), out-of-hours payments, additional rostered hours and the 11% rise in basic pay. If these sums really do stack up, that could help assuage junior doctors’ fears.”
What do you make of Hunt’s offer? Is his concession enough to stop you striking? Or do you think the strike is unreasonable? Share your thoughts with us – you do not need to answer every question– and we’ll use a selection in our reporting.
Alternatively, you can email carmen.fishwick@theguardian.com
