20 January 2006
The Department of Health has dismissed doctors' protests over government attempts to limit their wage rises to 1%.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt wrote to the doctors' and dentists' pay review body in December, asking it to cap most doctors' pay rises at 1%.
This week British Medical Association chair Jim Johnson met the head of the body to complain that Hewitt's intervention, together with a letter from Chancellor Gordon Brown asking for the rises to be based on his 2% inflation target, could compromise its objectivity.
The department had submitted evidence to the DDRB in September calling for a 2.5% ceiling on pay rises, but warned in supplementary evidence that it was reviewing the affordability of such a rise.
Hewitt's letter claimed that even if the DDRB awarded no pay rise this year, NHS staff earnings would grow by 3.6% because of factors such as annual increments. A 2.5% award would push earnings growth over 6%. Not only would this fuel inflation but it would also hit NHS finances, which were already struggling.
'The issue of deficits is a real problem and one that we would ask you to take into account in your recommendations,' Hewitt wrote.
Johnson said doctors' morale would be 'devastated' if the review body accepted the government's case.
'Doctors are as frustrated as patients by financial instability in the NHS; we're the ones struggling with limited resources to keep services running. Yet, for all our hard work, the government is effectively saying we should be punished for the failure of NHS managers to balance the books,' he added.
The department said claims it was interfering were 'ridiculous'. It added: 'Doctors have benefited hugely from our extra investment in NHS pay. Earnings for hospital doctors grew by 6.1% in 2004/05, which is considerably higher than the national whole economy average of around 4%.'
PFjan2006
