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Time to talk about junior doctor contracts?

Posted on 4 February 2013 by Ben Molyneux  8 comments

After two years collecting dust in the Department of Health, the NHS Employers contract scoping report was published just before Christmas. Why should you care? Well, the publication of this report marks the beginning of a process that could see a new contract for junior doctors, and that could mean major changes to our pay and working conditions. Releasing the report marks a clear intention to renegotiate the contract by the government.

While our contract isn’t perfect, we haven’t been clamouring for a renegotiation given the current economic climate. What is becoming increasingly clear is that the economy is not likely to pick up anytime in the near future. As a result, we cannot rely on an upturn before agreeing to look at our contracts in the hope of major improvements to our pay. So what’s in it for us now? Why shouldn’t we simply refuse to talk to the DH and NHS Employers?

The simple answer is that our current contract is far from perfect. The banding system that was so helpful in rewarding those who worked long hours successfully drove down our working hours to safe limits. 100-hour weeks are now a thing of the past. Our banding system is not generating much benefit for trainees now we have working-time regulations. The current contract is also complex, which can make it difficult to know what you’re entitled to.

A new contract could provide an opportunity to prioritise issues that are important to us. Training, for example, is barely mentioned in the current contract. A new contract could even out the variation in our pay as we move jobs, helping provide more stability to our working lives by , or refine the pay we receive for out-of-hours work. Of course another reason to talk is the simple fact that the government could impose changes upon us.

The NHS Employers scoping report gives a flavour of their thinking but the report is more than two years old, so we will only get a real understanding of what’s on the table if we talk. We have discussed the possibility of a new contract at the BMA many times and so we have a good idea of the issues we want to address.

But the BMA is not me, it is not the junior doctors committee: it is our members.

So we need to hear what you think. If you were in charge,  what issues would you want to address as part of a discussion on our contract? Would it be about working hours? Training? Study leave? Read the materials on the website and tell us what you think

Ben Molyneux is chair of the BMA junior doctors committee

Posted in:  Contracts

Tags:  junior contract nhs employers banding training study leave pay out-of-hours work junior doctors committee

Comments

  • Dr Anthony Molyneux

    4 February 2013

    In other words, the government - spurred on by the utter debacle of the BMA's "keystone cops" non-attempt at "industrial action" last June - can smell blood and know that the BMA can't/won't lift a finger to protect junior doctor pay and conditions.

    "Of course another reason to talk is the simple fact that the government could impose changes upon us."

    There's the fighting talk of the British trade union movement for you. "We might as well talk to the government because we have to do as they say anyway". What, pray tell, is the point of having a trade union at all if this is the attitude of the leadership?

    Absolutely bl*ody pathetic.

  • Dr Nick Cholidis

    5 February 2013

    My greatest fear is that the government with the help (see inaction) of a section of trainees ( eg in surgery) will use the renegotation as a stepping stone to abolish the EWTD that did so much to protect us all from the 100-hour week of the past. Pay will continue to suffer under the rate of inflation and the dwindling staffing levels will mean more work, stagnant pay and worsening working conditions.
    Isn's it good time for the BMA to work for the benefit of its members and the Medical profession as a whole? How much more are they going to squeeze out of us?
    Worrying future...

  • A.Sajayan

    5 February 2013

    First of

  • Dr D Majumdar

    5 February 2013

    The EWTD was a great thing in theory, although it meant not being paid for overtime which was a shame as nothing lowers morale more than working for free. It did damage training (eg surgery) as these trainees need theatre time and the concern is junior consultants will have done fewer independent surgeries which will bite us in the behinds in 20 years as they will be slower, less skilled and not as sharp in the face of adversity.

    My fear is abolishment of EWTD will not mean more training, but more donkey work instead. My opinion would be to increase hours from 48 but the extra work hours should be strictly for training. I can't speak for all but I personally enjoy training. The service provision is what is stressful.

    Please please think of the recent tragic suicides in NI of junior doctors feeling stressed, burnt out and isolated.

    http://bma.org.uk/news-views-analysis/news/2012/october/fatal-results-of-doctors-burnout-revealednewsitem

    It is no wonder that doctors are going to Australia, where I am at the moment. A 40 hour week with paid overtime and ample training opportunities and double (yes double) the post tax salary. For the first time I went to work happy and did not return exhausted and undervalued. I know obviously with the financial crisis, bloated NHS and Tory agenda of 'starve and destroy' that the grass will be greener across the pond for some time.

  • Dr Anthony Molyneux

    8 February 2013


    The way i can see things developing is towards a situation where junior doctors are viewed more as "trainee doctors" (i.e. trainee in the sense of implying "not quite yet doctors", as opposed to "recently qualified doctors"). The whole MMC thing has been building up to this since its inception, and has - in my view - been quite a conscious attack from government on the prestige of junior doctors and doctors in general for one purpose and one purpose only: to enable a situation where their pay and conditions can be driven down.

    The BMA, i fear, know this and are too scared/impotent to take on the government about it. The fact that they are banging on about "training being the most important thing about any new junior doctors' contract" and "previous contracts having not really said much about training" suggest to me they are - with depressing predictability - preparing for the inevitable climbdown. What i suspect will happen is that the government will suggest getting rid of banding supplements or something "in return for" a written commitment in the contract about obligation on NHS Employers to dedicate time to training - which happens anyway, even if it isn't written down anywhere. The BMA can then present this as a big victory they have managed to "achieve" in the negotiations. The truth is of course that the most important thing to junior doctors - to any workers in fact - is not meaningless half-a*sed "commitments" about training or professionalism which in fact "commit" employers to nothing at all, but the simple concrete fact of how much they are going to get paid for the work they do.

  • James Thompson

    8 February 2013

    Couldn't agree more Anthony. Having recently worked in Australia myself I also can vouch for the far better staffing levels, intensity of work levels and training time. Unsurprisingly this means your work life is vastly more pleasant.

    In a job which inherently requires you to stay late frequently and where it is actually generally unacceptable to hand most things over to a dangerously overstreched out of hours service you have to pay people for their overtime!

    Its a crying shame that the general selflessness and dedication of healthcare staff in general is used as a weakness to lever against us. Where things will be in 5 years is a scary thought...

  • T Saunders

    5 March 2013

    I think it is about time that the BMA really looked at F1/F2 contracts with a little more zeal. The west mids area which is geographically huge expects the transition from F2 to core trainee to be seamless! The point is that you can finish your F2 job in say Birmingham and be expected to start the next day in your CT job in Stoke on Trent with absolutely no run in! Is that fair?
    Also the W Mids have altered the goalposts with regard to sick leave for juniors to 10 days - is that reasonable? Doctors are being sneezed over, sicked etc. does duty of care not come in to this? I am surprised that the BMA has not got a rival yet e.g. The RMA ( real medical association) that would really looked after members needs rather than it seems offer lip service. Can you imagine the RCN letting that happen?

  • Helen

    14 May 2013

    My son is an F1, thrown in the deep end in a large, chaotic, understaffed hospital in London, where he is frequently the only doctor in charge all night on several wards, where the consultants are nowhere to be found. Something needs to change to support these new doctors and the BMA needs to toughen up.

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Changes to junior and consultant contracts

The government wants to discuss changes to the pay and employment conditions of consultants and junior doctors

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