BMA hopes for at least 10% pay rise

The Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body will make its recommendations in the next few weeks, and in its evidence the BMA said that the deterioration in the profession's relative position was now such that the review body should consider a structured timetable for restoring it. The association said that a substantial step in this direction in 1999 would be average increases of not less than 10%. It has refuted the previous evidence on comparability and says that there is an increasing gap between the pay of doctors and that of comparable professions.

The BMA's evidence was published in full and it again deplored the government's actions in repeatedly staging the review body's recommendations. It drew attention to the widening gap between public and private sector pay and reiterated the view that the inclusion of public sector comparators in pay comparisons introduced circularity and was unfair.

The association believes that the appropriate comparators for doctors on average are those in the top 2.5% of the white collar earnings distribution and for main career grade doctors the members of the large private sector professional partnerships, whose structures …