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The British Medical Association has been accused of the \u201cheight of hypocrisy\u201d for offering its own staff below-inflation pay rises while demanding a 26% increase for resident doctors.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of medics walked out of the NHS in England on Tuesday, the 15th time they have staged industrial action since March 2023 in their campaign for \u201cfull pay restoration\u201d.<\/p>\n
At the same time, hundreds of BMA staff staged strike action themselves after being offered a below-inflation pay rise of 2.75% by the doctors\u2019 union.<\/p>\n
The BMA rejected<\/a> an offer from Wes Streeting, the health secretary, that would have given resident doctors a pay rise averaging 4.9% this year \u2013 almost twice the increase it is offering its own workers.<\/p>\n The doctors\u2019 union has said it is unable to offer its own staff any more money due to pressures on its budgets. At the same time, the union is seeking<\/a> a 26% taxpayer-funded pay rise for resident doctors to be spread over several years.<\/p>\n Donna Thomas, the regional organiser for GMB, which represents staff at the BMA, said: \u201cThe BMA is asking the government for pay restoration for their doctor members but have failed to restore the pay of their own staff, who have seen their wages eroded nearly 17%.\u201d<\/p>\n The Guardian understands that the BMA staff affected include admin workers, policy experts, communication officers, IT specialists and negotiators who have been supporting the resident doctors committee in their long-running dispute with the government. BMA staff began their 48-hour walkout on Monday.<\/p>\n Streeting said the offer to doctors rejected by the BMA would have delivered an average pay rise this year of 4.9%, a pay boost of at least 6.2% for the lowest-paid doctors, and an overall pay increase of 35.2% on average compared with four years ago.<\/p>\n Speaking after medics walked out on Tuesday, Streeting said: \u201cResident doctors are, by a country mile, the standout winners of the entire public sector workforce when it comes to the pay rises they have received from this government, and this was a good deal, they have rejected it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe day they rejected it, they rushed straight to six days of strike action, which will cost the NHS \u00a3300m.\u201d The health secretary said the government had \u201cbent over backwards\u201d for resident doctors but what was offered was \u201cnever enough\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd here\u2019s the real kicker, having rejected this deal because the pay offer apparently wasn\u2019t good enough at 4.9%, the BMA are offering their own staff 2.75% on affordability grounds.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy does the BMA think they can get away with telling their own staff they only get 2.75% because that\u2019s all they can afford, whilst rejecting a 4.9% offer because that\u2019s all the government can afford?\u201d<\/p>\n Streeting added: \u201cSo it seems to me, the BMA position boils down to this: they\u2019re not prepared to pay their own staff more than 2.75% because they say they can\u2019t afford it, but they\u2019re very happy to ask the taxpayer to cough up even more whether the taxpayer can afford it or not. And I think that is the height of hypocrisy from the BMA.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Jack Fletcher, the chair of the resident doctors committee, said on Tuesday he was \u201cgenuinely very sorry\u201d medics were striking but said they \u201cfeel like we had no choice.<\/p>\n \u201cWe gave the government several opportunities to avoid it, and they chose not to.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that it\u2019s in the interests of the government to be using doctors\u2019 jobs as political pawns when we have an epidemic of corridor care, when we have people struggling to get GP appointments, we have waiting lists, which still remain stubbornly high.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday, NHS colleagues of resident doctors were drafted in to provide cover, but the strike meant some treatments and appointments had to be cancelled.<\/p>\n The latest polling by YouGov showed that 53% of the public opposed the resident doctor strikes. The poll of 6,908 British adults suggested that 38% supported the walkouts.<\/p>\n Speaking at a picket line at Bristol Royal Infirmary, one medic said he believed the public were generally supportive of the resident doctors\u2019 strikes, though some were \u201cunderstandably frustrated with the longevity\u201d of them.<\/p>\n Dr Sam Taylor-Smith said he would apologise to patients whose appointments were cancelled but added he was doing so \u201c365 days a year\u201d due to inadequate levels of staffing.<\/p>\n \u201cI do see a bit more positive movement with this government but we\u2019re still not quite there yet,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately there\u2019s still been, at times, grandstanding and posturing rather than meaningful engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n The walkout in England is due to last until 7am on Monday. Health leaders have pleaded with patients<\/a> not to be put off seeking the care they need.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n