NHS Employers, the employers organisation for the health service, has begun collating the 4,500 responses to the NHS pension review consultation.
Tim Sands, NHS pension review project manager, said: “We recognise the pension review is a vital issue for staff and is still uppermost in people’s minds, as borne out in several trade union conferences this week.
“Since the beginning, this review has been a partnership process and we will continue to work closely with the unions in the next phase of the review.
“After the election we will meet with our trade union partners to discuss the responses with them and agree a way forward.”
Negotiations between NHS Employers and trade unions on the NHS pension scheme are expected to begin in early summer following the government’s announcement in March that all public sector pension schemes would undergo scheme-specific negotiations.
The discussions will include the issue of raising the pension age to 65.
Once a way forward has been agreed between NHS Employers and trade unions, a joint report with final recommendations will be submitted to the Minister of Health.
Sands said: “We are looking forward to working with our trade union partners so that we are able to recommend a new pension scheme to ministers that will be fair, sustainable and flexible and that will meet the needs of the modern NHS.”
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