NHS consultants in Scotland offered 10.5% pay rise

The 10.5% offer to consultants comes as nurses and healthcare staff consider a 5.5% pay rise

NHS consultants across Scotland have been offered a 10.5% pay rise which would see them earn between £10,000 and £13,500 a year more.

The increase to basic pay would be backdated to 1 April, with the most junior consultants earning over £100,000 and the most senior over £142,000.

The proposed deal - which is expected to cost £124.9m - comes after 170,000 NHS Scotland nurses and healthcare staff agreed a 5.5% pay rise.

The Scottish government said the offer to consultants would bring Scotland back into line with recent agreements in other parts of the UK.

The British Medical Association (BMA) will now put the offer to its members and recommend its approval.

Health Secretary Neil Gray said the package would guarantee NHS Scotland "remains competitive when recruiting and retaining consultants".

He added: "I am pleased to propose a pay offer that will ensure that our consultant workforce feel valued, supported and fairly rewarded.

"I wish to thank our consultants for their dedication and patience.

"They are a critical part of NHS Scotland’s workforce and we are committed to supporting them.”

Scottish government ministers have previously said they were proud that Scotland was the only nation in the UK to have avoided NHS strike action.

'Years of pay erosion'

It has already committed £448m to fund a 5.5% increase for other healthcare staff including nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists.

Resident doctors - formerly known as junior doctors- are still to complete their negotiations over pay for this year.

The BMA described the pay offer as a positive first step towards making the Scottish NHS a competitive place for consultants to work.

Dr Alan Robertson, chairman of the BMA's Scottish consultant committee, said its members had suffered "considerable pay erosion" in recent years due to repeated pay freezes and high inflation.

He added that when deals in the rest of the UK were taken into consideration, "it was increasingly clear that consultants in Scotland were falling seriously behind".

Dr Robertson said: "At the very least this is an offer which returns consultant pay in Scotland to being comparable with that across the UK - and at many stages of a consultant's career it will be better than in England.

"There is still much work to be done given the many years that our pay has been eroded and the impact of higher taxation in Scotland.

"However, the offer is one we believe moves consultant pay in Scotland in the right direction and can be built upon."