23 May 2003
Ministers and doctors' leaders reached an impasse over the future of the NHS consultants' contract this week.
Amid a growing sense of crisis, the British Medical Association gave the government a three-month deadline to reopen talks at a special consultants' meeting in London on May 21.
They backed the deadline with a threat of industrial action.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn is adamant that the contract, which was rejected by English and Welsh consultants last year, will not be revised. He has instructed trusts to implement the contract where it has been accepted locally, or introduce incentive payments for consultants to reduce waiting lists.
In the absence of the new contract, he confirmed that consultants would receive a 3% pay rise this year. If the deal had been implemented, salary rises would have varied between 9% and 24%.
However, Milburn also attempted to rebuild relations with doctors. At a pre-conference dinner he asked them to play a central role in developing a new 'compact' between doctors, patients, managers and the Department of Health. He hopes measures such as giving doctors a say in the sensitive area of the publication of death rates will reduce medical hostility.
But the BMA dismissed the compact, telling Milburn he was risking the future of the NHS by refusing to renegotiate.
'Without our goodwill the government will run an embattled, low-morale service; a service of deteriorating standards with embittered employees,' BMA consultants' leader Paul Miller said.
While industrial action was not on the immediate agenda, it could become necessary, the 200 delegates were told. Instead, consultants who work longer than their agreed hours were urged to make a pay claim for the extra work, seek a reduction in workload or insist they work no more than the 48-hour limit set by the European Working Time Directive.
NHS Confederation policy manager Alastair Henderson, who helped negotiate the original contract, said renegotiation was not an option.
'I hope there will be agreement to go ahead with the contract in one or two places. Then consultants will see it has a lot of benefits.'
PFmay2003
