Senior doctors vote to accept new pay offer

Dr David Farren, chair of the NICC said that the offer is a positive first step towards full pay restoration

Senior doctors in Northern Ireland have voted to accept a pay offer from the Department of Health (DoH).

The British Medical Association (BMA) said members "voted overwhelmingly in favour of the deal, putting to an end one of three pay disputes involving doctors working in secondary care".

Of those balloted, 94.3% of consultants voted to accept a 5.26% average additional uplift, which will be backdated to March 2024.

There was a turnout of 75% for the ballot.

Dr David Farren, chair of BMA's Northern Ireland consultants committee (NICC), said: "Consultants in Northern Ireland clearly feel that this offer from government is a positive first step towards full pay restoration.

"Consultants bear ultimate responsibility for patient care, they are key to addressing the waiting list crisis and lead on training doctors and clinical innovation, yet in Northern Ireland their pay did not reflect this level of responsibility."

"This deal begins the process of making our pay more attractive and competitive with our UK counterparts which is critical at a time of chronic workforce shortages here," he said.

The pay offer also includes a revised consultant pay scale with uplifts at all pay points, the highest percentage uplift in the UK this year, and the highest consultant starting salary in the UK.

This uplift is also in addition to the 6% already awarded as part of the 2023/24 Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration process and is entirely separate to any subsequent pay award for 2024/25.

The pay offer also includes a revised consultant pay scale

Dr Farren said while the BMA is glad to have "resolved this particular pay dispute, it is regrettable that it took other UK nations reaching pay deals and an overwhelming yes vote for strike action before DoH made a credible offer to open pay negotiations".

"It should never have reached that point," he said. "Valuing the skills of our workforce and ultimately protecting patient care was at the core of this dispute.

"The Department must now demonstrate that it values doctors by continuing to work with us on reversing years of below inflation pay awards and to improve our terms and conditions.

"That includes timely and prompt payment of this pay award and all future pay body recommended uplifts," he added.

One in three disputes settled

Consultants in Northern Ireland suspended industrial action on 26 June following the announcement that the Department of Health had put forward, what the BMA called, a "credible pay offer".

Consultants in England ended their pay dispute when they back a pay deal which would seem some receive an increase of nearly 20% for the financial year 2023-24.

That followed four strikes by consultants in previous months.

The Northern Ireland junior doctors committee is currently still in dispute with the Department of Health and has taken strike action over pay.

The Northern Ireland SAS (Specialists, associate specialist, and specialty doctor) committee will be moving towards a formal ballot of members over pay later this year.