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NHS Scotland consultants agree pay deal |
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Consultants across Scotland have voted to accept a new pay and reward package following negotiations that will see them receive an 10.5% increase in their basic pay.
The pay rise, which the Scottish government says is part of a total £124.9m package ‘to invest in NHS Scotland consultants’, will be backdated to the 1st of April 2024.
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray said:
“I am very pleased that the consultants have voted to accept our pay offer. This will ensure that our consultant workforce feel valued, supported and fairly rewarded.
“This will bring Scotland back into line with recent pay deals in other parts of the UK, ensuring our NHS remains competitive when recruiting and retaining consultants.
“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.”
Today’s deal comes after doctors’ representative organisation BMA Scotland warned that pay and work-life balance are “crucial” to stop doctors leaving.
Responding to the news that pay offer has been accepted, BMA Scotland Consultant’s Committee chair Dr Alan Robertson said it marks an “important first step” in addressing NHS Scotland consultant pay erosion.
Dr Robertson added that this is “far from the end of the story”:
“It will help maintain Scotland as an attractive place for consultants to work, improve retention and therefore benefit the NHS and patients whose care suffers as workforce vacancies go unaddressed.
“However, there is much more to do and build upon from here – it is far from the end of the story.
“We still have ground to make up to restore pay to levels of the past and make up what we have lost to poor pay awards and the impact of inflation.
“Pension taxes continue to be an issue and while this pay award helps, higher income tax rates here do impact on competitiveness of our jobs and of the Scottish NHS compared to the rest of the UK.
“So, we must keep pushing to make sure working as a consultant in Scotland is as attractive as possible, and that this pay offer is not a one off, but more an indication of a trend.”
Read more: BMA: Scotland ‘sleepwalking' into private healthcare; “Huge alarm” at hospital discharge delays; Health and care workforce to be bolstered over winter; ‘Unprecedented' crisis in community health and care; Cancer consultant workforce “not on right trajectory”
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