The government and the BMA trade union have struck an improved pay deal for junior doctors in England worth 22% on average over two years.
The BMA’s junior doctors’ committee has agreed to put the offer to its members.
If accepted it would spell an end to long-running strike action which has led to the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of appointments since March 2023.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the offer marked “the start of a new relationship” between the government and NHS staff.
Recommended offer
The latest government offer is made up of a 4% backdated pay rise for 2023-24, on top of the existing increase worth an average of 9% for the last financial year.
A further pay rise worth about 8% is being offered for 2024-25, as recommended by an independent pay review body.
That brings the total over the two years to roughly 22%, on average, for each junior doctor, with the lowest paid set to receive the largest increases.
The BMA’s junior doctors’ committee said it will now recommend the offer to its members, who will then be asked to vote on the deal.
Junior doctors had been campaigning for a 35% pay increase to make up for what they say are years of below inflation pay rises.
A ‘new relationship’
Addressing the Commons, the chancellor Rachel Reeves said industrial action in the NHS had cost taxpayers £1.7bn last year.
“Today marks the start of a new relationship between the government and staff working in the NHS,” she said. “The whole country will welcome that.”
Meeting the recommendations of independent pay review bodies for the public sector would cost an extra £9bn this year, she added, which would be paid for in part by asking government departments to find £3bn worth of savings.
There will be a freeze on the use of outside consultants and non-essential government communications.
In health and social care, plans to build 40 new hospitals in England by 2030 would face a “complete review”, while the chancellor said it would “not be possible” to introduce a cap on personal care costs in England by October 2025 as Labour pledged in its election campaign.
In a statement, the co-chairs of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, described the offer as “a start” which “changes the current trajectory of pay”.
“It should never have taken so long to get here, but this offer shows what can be achieved when both parties enter negotiations in a constructive spirit,” they said.
The offer must now go to a full vote of the BMA’s 50,000 junior doctor members in England who will decide whether to accept or reject the deal.
If accepted, it would bring to an end a series of 11 separate periods of industrial action since March 2023.
The latest five-day strike – which took place just days before the general election – led to the postponement of 61,989 appointments, procedures and operations, according to NHS England.
NHS Providers, which represents large hospitals and other trusts, welcomed the announcement but said the government must not pass on the cost of above-inflation pay awards to other frontline services.
It said its members would be “deeply concerned” about any further delay to the new hospital building programme, with “too many NHS buildings and facilities falling to bits”.
Junior doctors in Wales recently voted in favour of an improved pay deal while, in Northern Ireland, talks are ongoing and no strike action is currently planned.
Junior doctors have not taken industrial action in Scotland after they accepted a pay offer from the devolved government last year.