Government announces 6% pay rise for salaried GPs and trainees

The Government has announced that NHS staff in England will get a 6% pay increase this year, including salaried GPs and trainees but not GP partners.

NHS consultants, SAS doctors, salaried dentists and salaried GPs will receive uplifts of 6% this year, the Department of Health and Social Care said.

Junior doctors will also receive a 6% uplift, as well as an additional consolidated £1,250 increase – with the Prime Minister calling on the BMA to end ongoing strikes in response as this offer is ‘final’.

However the Government said that England’s NHS pay rise would need to be funded from within the Department of Health and Social Care’s existing budget, via redistribution of resources.

Pulse had already reported that Scottish GPs were receiving a 6% pay rise based on an unpublished DDRB report.

England’s GP partners are tied into the five-year deal that aims to give them a vastly below-inflation annual pay uplift of 2.1% and it is unclear how they will fund staff pay rises promised by the Government.

In a statement to Parliament today, Treasury Minister John Glen said he had accepted recommendations made by the pay review bodies ‘in full’, although the DDRB report will not be published until next week.

Mr Glen told Parliament: ‘I can announce that the Government has accepted the headline recommendations of the independent pay review bodies in full.

The awards will be funded through ‘a combination of the significant provision for pay that was made at the last spending review, greater efficiency and reprioritisation,’ he added.

There will be ‘no new borrowing’ or ‘spending to fund the awards’ because more borrowing would ‘simply add more pressure on inflation’.

‘Departments will be reprioritising within existing budgets, and driving further efficiencies to focus where it delivers the greatest value.’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that ‘having honoured the independent pay review process, I urge all union leaders to accept these pay offers and call off their strikes’.

The pay review bodies ‘have considered a range of evidence’ about where to set this year’s pay, he said, adding that ‘their recommendations to Government are for public sector pay rises to go up by a significant amount’.

‘Now clearly, this will cost all of you as taxpayers more than we had budgeted for. That’s why the decision has been difficult, and why it has taken time to decide the right course of action.

‘I can confirm today that we are accepting the headline recommendations of the pay review bodies in full, but we will not fund them by borrowing more or increasing your taxes.’

But he said the ‘clear message’ was that there are ‘always choices’ as ‘budgets are not finite’.

‘When some ask for higher pay, that will always create pressures elsewhere, costs which must be ultimately be borne by the taxpayer, or by spending less on our other priorities.’

He concluded, with a special mention of BMA consultants and junior doctors, that ‘today’s offer is final’.

‘There will be no more talks on pay. We will not negotiate again on this year’s settlements. And no amount of strikes will change our decision.’

Junior doctors are currently in the midst of the longest-ever strike seen in the NHS in protest over pay, with consultants due to follow with a two-day strike next week.