big ears
Well-Known Member
The Junior doctors strike continues. Here is a précis of the discussions from the stand point if the Junior Doctors.
The Government has offered a 5% increase for 23/24, a one off £1500, and something to do with exam fees. They said they hugely appreciate the hard work and extraordinary effort of doctors, yet in the very same breath they offered us another real terms pay cut.
Our campaign, and your massive vote and participation in strike action, have clearly been intended to bring us Full Pay Restoration. Your instruction to us is clear. Despite this, the Government offer of 5%, in reality, only increases the scale of our pay erosion with no suggestion to reverse that trajectory this year or in the future . That is not a serious opening position for doctors.
They refused to move from this derisory position. They’ve dug their heels in. They’ve told us they don’t accept that pay has worsened. They’ve told us they don’t respect that the work has gotten harder. They’ve told us they don’t acknowledge that the job is more demanding than ever before.
They don’t value us. They don’t value our work. They don’t value our sacrifice. They don’t value the prime of our life being dedicated to our studies. They don’t value the social and personal cost of rotational training. They don’t value the time and effort spent bettering ourselves with higher education, further qualifications, certification, skill and expertise. This isn’t just what we inferred from our conversations, this is something they explicitly refuted when we put it to them.
The Government has argued they look at recruitment, retention, and morale when considering pay offers. They have ignored the evidence put in front of them that 1 in 7 UK-trained doctors are leaving the country. They’ve tried to attribute alternative explanations to our record breaking ballot result. They’ve tried to use “natural comparators with other high-income professions” when it comes to pay settlements, forgetting that other professionals typically move jobs for a rise, which is not captured in their data.
The Government told us their fear of setting wage precedents. They don’t want any public sector body to have more than 5%, because they fear the private sector will use that as an opportunity to negotiate higher deals themselves. This is despite public sector workers making up about 19% of the UK workforce and the widely held view from economists refuting public sector pay increases leading to wage-spiral inflation. The Government was not convinced of the issue that our training and regulation is a high barrier to enter our own labour market and so individuals in the private sector can’t feasibly become doctors to seek a pay rise however they fail to recognise that doctors can very much take their transferable skills and do the opposite.
The Government has refused to recognise the individual and specific issues within our profession, and how we might be able to aid them in three of the Prime Minister’s goals: halving inflation by improving healthcare outcomes and reducing long term sickness as per the Chancellor’s ambition in the Spring budget to relax pressures on wages; healthier people being more productive and thus not hampering growth; and, of course, assisting in getting the waiting lists down.
The Government refused to listen to any of these coherent arguments because of the diktat of the Prime Minister. We hope that this highlights to all of our colleagues across our profession that we are dealing with an unreasonable government who cannot be persuaded by words but must be by our commitment to prolonged action.
Then the mask slipped. They told us they’re paying the ‘market-clearing rate’: the least they can get away with whilst filling roles, despite the obvious contradiction of huge job vacancies.
So what can be taken from this? It depends on your standpoint apart from the third paragraph which shows the government bravado, the biggest worry for me is the comment about private sector involvement. Clearly they’re going to be more involvement of the private sector and at a higher cost than the existing system. It always is. Allowing wages to rise means the bill for private involvement also goes up. The government also seem to be willing to allow the massive brain drain to continue again probably to allow the existing system to collapse and therefore hasten the private involvement.
The bit the government have missed it that once the doctors leave the profession or go abroad only a few return. So who is going to staff the private sector involvement? The highly trained well (medically) educated junior doctors we have now or quickly trained sub doctor grades? Physicians Assistant they are called now. Good idea you might think but in 15 years time who will be the consultants we all rely on to deliver the surgery and treatments we all need.
Interesting times.
The Government has offered a 5% increase for 23/24, a one off £1500, and something to do with exam fees. They said they hugely appreciate the hard work and extraordinary effort of doctors, yet in the very same breath they offered us another real terms pay cut.
Our campaign, and your massive vote and participation in strike action, have clearly been intended to bring us Full Pay Restoration. Your instruction to us is clear. Despite this, the Government offer of 5%, in reality, only increases the scale of our pay erosion with no suggestion to reverse that trajectory this year or in the future . That is not a serious opening position for doctors.
They refused to move from this derisory position. They’ve dug their heels in. They’ve told us they don’t accept that pay has worsened. They’ve told us they don’t respect that the work has gotten harder. They’ve told us they don’t acknowledge that the job is more demanding than ever before.
They don’t value us. They don’t value our work. They don’t value our sacrifice. They don’t value the prime of our life being dedicated to our studies. They don’t value the social and personal cost of rotational training. They don’t value the time and effort spent bettering ourselves with higher education, further qualifications, certification, skill and expertise. This isn’t just what we inferred from our conversations, this is something they explicitly refuted when we put it to them.
The Government has argued they look at recruitment, retention, and morale when considering pay offers. They have ignored the evidence put in front of them that 1 in 7 UK-trained doctors are leaving the country. They’ve tried to attribute alternative explanations to our record breaking ballot result. They’ve tried to use “natural comparators with other high-income professions” when it comes to pay settlements, forgetting that other professionals typically move jobs for a rise, which is not captured in their data.
The Government told us their fear of setting wage precedents. They don’t want any public sector body to have more than 5%, because they fear the private sector will use that as an opportunity to negotiate higher deals themselves. This is despite public sector workers making up about 19% of the UK workforce and the widely held view from economists refuting public sector pay increases leading to wage-spiral inflation. The Government was not convinced of the issue that our training and regulation is a high barrier to enter our own labour market and so individuals in the private sector can’t feasibly become doctors to seek a pay rise however they fail to recognise that doctors can very much take their transferable skills and do the opposite.
The Government has refused to recognise the individual and specific issues within our profession, and how we might be able to aid them in three of the Prime Minister’s goals: halving inflation by improving healthcare outcomes and reducing long term sickness as per the Chancellor’s ambition in the Spring budget to relax pressures on wages; healthier people being more productive and thus not hampering growth; and, of course, assisting in getting the waiting lists down.
The Government refused to listen to any of these coherent arguments because of the diktat of the Prime Minister. We hope that this highlights to all of our colleagues across our profession that we are dealing with an unreasonable government who cannot be persuaded by words but must be by our commitment to prolonged action.
Then the mask slipped. They told us they’re paying the ‘market-clearing rate’: the least they can get away with whilst filling roles, despite the obvious contradiction of huge job vacancies.
So what can be taken from this? It depends on your standpoint apart from the third paragraph which shows the government bravado, the biggest worry for me is the comment about private sector involvement. Clearly they’re going to be more involvement of the private sector and at a higher cost than the existing system. It always is. Allowing wages to rise means the bill for private involvement also goes up. The government also seem to be willing to allow the massive brain drain to continue again probably to allow the existing system to collapse and therefore hasten the private involvement.
The bit the government have missed it that once the doctors leave the profession or go abroad only a few return. So who is going to staff the private sector involvement? The highly trained well (medically) educated junior doctors we have now or quickly trained sub doctor grades? Physicians Assistant they are called now. Good idea you might think but in 15 years time who will be the consultants we all rely on to deliver the surgery and treatments we all need.
Interesting times.
