Government announces NHS pay awards

Nurses working in the NHS are to get a 2.5% pay rise from 1 April, health secretary Patricia Hewitt has announced. But doctors will get just 2.2%, with more than half of the increase for senior doctors delayed until November.

This is the first time that the Labour government has failed to honour the independent pay review body recommendations in full and on time since it came to power in 1997.

The British Medical Association said it was 'astonished at the vindictive and petty treatment of consultants' and attacked the 'blatant interference of the chancellor of the exchequer in the independent Doctors and Dentists Review Body process'. It had called for a 4.5% increase for doctors.

Hewitt’s announcement means that hospital consultants will get just 1% extra in their pay packet from 1 April, with a second stage increase of 1.2% in November taking the overall rise to 2.2%. The delay will cost consultants “less than £80 a month” for the seven months between the two stages, Hewitt said.

Junior doctors will get their 2.2% in full from 1 April, as will nurses, who get 2.5%. Salaried dentists get 2.4%, and other dentists 3%. The government will 'urge' NHS trusts to keep senior managers’ pay rises to similar levels.

The increases are in line with Gordon Brown’s Budget announcement last week that public sector settlements would average 2.5% this year. Today’s announcement is believed to have been delayed by his wish to see a larger share of any increase go to lower paid staff.

Hewitt said she understood that consultants would be disappointed but that the increases were 'fair and affordable'. She added: “A newly qualified nurse joining the NHS will now earn £19,116 - on a par with a newly qualified primary school teacher.

'Since the introduction of the consultant contract two years ago, average consultant earnings have risen by 11.5 per cent. This means that the pay of a new consultant (on the minimum salary scale) has risen from £42,170 in March 1997 to £69,991 from April 2006 and will be £70,823 from November 2006 - a 68 per cent increase in cash terms.'

  • Hewitt announces 'fair and affordable' pay deals for NHS staff  Read the Government's press release, on the Department of Health web site.

  • Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration   Read the doctors' review body report, on the Office of Manpower Economics web site.

  • Review Body for Nursing and Other Health Professions    Read the nurses' review body report, on the Office of Manpower Economics web site.

  • British Medical Association    Read the BMA's response to the pay award for doctors, on the BMA web site.

  • Royal College of Nursing   Read the RCN's response to the pay award for nurses, on the RCN web site.


    Also

    Pay review bodies heed chancellor's call for pay restraint and Gender pay gap revealed among NHS executives   IRS Employment Review reports.

    Public sector pay 2005/06    The issue of pensions has dominated the headlines, but 2005 has also been a year of change for pay in the public sector, with reform packages adding to the public sector paybill.
     
    Moderate pay rises for most public sector workers in 2005   Many of the awards recommended by the public sector pay bodies are below inflation in 2005, with some higher rises for senior staff to compete with higher private sector salaries.