JUNIOR doctors have accepted a strike-ending pay deal, finally bringing an end to 18 months of crippling NHS walkouts. Members of the British Medical Association voted yes to a salary boost worth between £7,000 and £12,000. The contract bumps their starting salary from £29,384 to £36,616.
By the time they are fully qualified they will earn a whopping £70,425, up from £58,398. Strike leaders Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi encouraged members to vote yes in a ballot that ended on Sunday. They told militant colleagues it was the best they could hope for right now.
Read more on NHS strikes But they have threatened to strike again next year if they don’t get another pay rise in 2025. The breakthrough will be a relief for patients who have suffered 1.5million appointment cancellations since March last year.
And it is a win for the new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, who pledged to succeed where the Conservative government had failed. There were 11 junior doctors’ walkouts totalling 44 days - meaning more than a month’s labour lost, with more than 20,000 staff striking each time. Most read in Health Today’s solution brings an end to the last nationwide NHS strike in England.
The new pay deal amounts to a total of increase of between 21 and 25 per cent between 2023 and 2025. The exact amount they will receive depends on their career stage but it is spread over a three-year deal plus a cash bonus. Trainee medics will receive a backdated increase of four per cen.