Junior doctors' pay: a wake-up call to the NHS

The new pay deal will also improve doctors' and patients' health and safety

Next week junior doctors in the United Kingdom will vote on whether to accept a pay deal that was painstakingly negotiated on their behalf.1 But this is no ordinary deal: a completely new framework for assessing payment has been worked out. It represents a fairer system of remuneration and will force hospitals to examine how they use junior doctors and, by implication, other healthcare professionals.

Under the proposed arrangements junior doctors will no longer suffer the ignominy of overtime paid at a fraction of the basic hourly rate.2 Instead posts will be banded to reflect the number and timing of extra hours, intensity of work, and antisocial nature of duty commitments. Junior doctors will receive a salary supplement linked to the banding of the post. So, doctors working in band 1c posts—the least onerous—will receive a supplement of 20% and …