BMA Rejects Pay Cut



The British Medical Associations (BMA) has rejected a proposal to suspend pay increments for all NHS staff in England.

NHS staff are already subject to a two-year pay freeze, but under proposals from NHS Employers, are being asked to agree a further cut and forego their incremental pay increases.



In its formal response to NHS Employers, the BMA said: “After consultation with our members, the overwhelming response was that the BMA should not sign up to the proposed national framework to allow local freezing of incremental pay progression.”



Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of Council at the BMA, said: 

“Obviously these are difficult times and NHS staff are already working extremely hard to provide services as efficiently as possible. At a time of rising inflation, their pay has been frozen for two years, and this latest proposal would amount to a further, severe real-terms cut. While bankers are to be allowed to continue to receive massive bonuses, it is absolutely perverse to penalise the dedicated and hard-working staff who keep the NHS running. The service is about to undergo an expensive re-structuring, and there are many other areas where savings could be made in the NHS, such as the costly Private Finance Initiative.”



(BMcN/GK)