Bookmarkers beware: Bookmarks to pages other than the home page may not work after we change our server in April Editor's Choice | This Week in BMJ | Press releases BMJ No 7129 Volume 316 News Saturday 7 February 1998 UK doctors' pay award phased again Doctors in the NHS have been awarded a pay rise above the level of inflation, but the award has been phased for the third year running: they will receive 2% from 1 April and the balance on 1 December. In the Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body's 1998 report senior and junior hospital doctors and doctors in public and community health have been awarded rises of 4.2% and GPs 5.2% for the year as a whole. When pension increases are taken into account the first group will receive 4.55% and GPs 5.55%. From 1 December a house officer will start on £16,145 ($25,830), a consultant's salary will range from £45,740 to £59,040; and the average GP will earn £49,030 (£47,540 from 1 April). Target payments will add a further £3,500. The phasing means an average increase for doctors this year of 3.9%. The government has ignored the review body's comment in its latest report that "staging seriously affects morale among members of our remit groups." When the prime minister announced last week that the government had accepted the report's recommendations, he said that it was "essential" to stage the awards' introduction to ensure that they do not lead to "unwelcome increases in pay pressures throughout the economy more generally." Dr Sandy Macara, chairman of the BMA council, said: "It is deeply disappointing that despite the healthy state of the economy the government has yet again invented 'clear and compelling' reasons to ignore the review body's recommendation that this award should not be staged." The review body said that the evidence did not show a major problem in recruiting and retaining senior hospital doctors, but it accepted that their jobs had changed significantly, and it has commissioned a full workload study in time for the 1999 review. The chairman of the BMA's consultants committee, Mr James Johnson, said that his committee would cooperate fully with the study, which he expected would show the huge rise in both clinical and non-clinical work carried by senior doctors. The number of A plus distinction awards - paid on top of consultants' salaries - have been increased to 277 and the value to £56,090; A awards have been increased to 955 and their value to £41,330; and B awards have been increased to 2120 and their value to £23,615. Although the review body does not believe that the deterioration in recruitment of GPs is as alarming as the BMA maintained, it acknowledges that there are some difficulties and that their jobs have changed - hence its higher award for GPs. It has also recommended an additional annual £60m from 1999. It believes that this could be used, for example, to enhance deprivation payments or support projects providing geriatric and mental health care in general practice. The review body has also invited the profession and the health departments to consider a merit scheme for GPs that would reward high quality clinical performance. The salaries of doctors who are taking part in primary care pilots under the Primary Care Act or the salaried doctors scheme in the NHS will be negotiated locally, although these doctors will remain within the review body's remit. The review body has drawn attention to the potentially damaging effects of inadequate pay levels for non-principal doctors on recruitment, retention, and morale, and it suggests that their pay should be negotiated locally between the employing practices and the doctors concerned. The BMA has criticised the decision not to make any major changes to the out of hours supplements for junior hospital doctors. These supplements will be paid at 100% for those working full shifts or working partial shifts and on call rotas of full shift intensity; at 70% for those working partial shifts or on call rotas of partial shift intensity; and 50% for those working on call rotas. Regretting this decision, Mr Nizam Mamode of the Junior Doctors Committee said: "As long as juniors continue to be paid as little as £3.71 per hour when working overnight, many trusts will find it in their financial interest to continue exploiting their junior staff." The chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Stephen Thornton, said: "Our major concern is not whether these awards are affordable this year . . . but their impact on the following year's budget. Given these awards, the first 1% of any new money the NHS gets in 1999-2000 will have to go on funding their full year impact." The cost of the full award is £282m. Some of the increases for NHS doctors are set out on p 481. Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration. Twenty-Seventh Report 1998is available from the Stationery Office, price £14. Linda Beecham BMJ Home | Current issue | Past issues | Classified ads | Career Focus | Feedback Collections | About this site | About the BMJ | BMA | Medline