Senior doctors in England have voted in favour of strike action after 86% of balloted union members backed a walkout in July.
The British Medical Association said more than 24,000 consultants in England voted in its ballot, which had a turnout of 71%. It said it was forced to ballot consultants after talks between the BMA and government broke down over pay.
The strikes are planned for 20 and 21 July, “unless the government comes forward with a credible offer”.
Take-home pay for consultants in England has fallen in real terms by 35% since 2008-09, according to the union.
A key factor in pay deflation is the fact that income tax thresholds have been frozen, with a 45% tax rate in place for higher earners. Average pay for NHS consultants is more than £126,000.
NHS strike action
Consultants are seeking pay rises that match inflation. Last year they received a 4.5% pay increase, less than half the rate of RPI inflation in the 12 months to March.
Junior doctors have already announced a five-day walkout between 13 and 18 July, the fourth since the pay dispute began.
Most routine and elective services will be cancelled as a result, but full emergency cover will remain in place – equivalent to “Christmas Day cover”.
Dr Vishal Sharma, BMA consultants committee chair, said consultants did not take the decision to strike lightly.
“Consultants are not worth a third less than we were 15 years ago and have had enough,” he said.
“We are simply asking for fairness to ensure that there is a pay settlement that begins to reverse the real-terms pay decline that we have suffered and a commitment to fully reform the pay review process to ensure that it can make truly independent recommendations in the future that take into account historical losses so that we don’t find ourselves in this situation again.
“Consultants are the NHS’s most experienced, highly-skilled clinicians, and are responsible not just for providing specialist care patients, but also leading entire services and training the doctors of the future.
“The government can and must fix consultant pay now and for the future. Failure to do so will lead consultants to leave the NHS and the country, or towards retirement before their time. The loss of this expertise would be devastating for services, patients and the future of the NHS.”
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said the strikes announcement was an “unmitigated disaster of the government’s making”, with the risk to patients and the NHS “intolerable”.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the strikes were “unchartered territory”.
“This will be a huge blow to the service especially for a workforce that has helped prop up the NHS during the disruptive junior doctors’ strikes.
“NHS leaders in systems and Trusts have agreed to ambitious performance and financial targets. These targets – including the Prime Minister’s waiting list pledge – were already very stretching but further industrial action by junior doctors and now consultants will make them even harder to achieve.
“While it is positive that other trade unions have managed to reach agreement with the government, it is important for everyone in the NHS workforce to have the same opportunity to have their concerns around working conditions listened to and understood. Industrial action in general has been going on for far too long so staff are exhausted – all sides will want a speedy resolution given the backlogs the service is battling with.”
Taylor said he hoped the NHS workforce plan would address issues around recruitment and retention, but added that pay was not covered in this plan, so would require the government’s “special attention”.
“With patient care on the line, no one wants to see a war of attrition between consultants and the government, like we have seen previously with other trade unions; both sides must do what they can to avert this walkout,” he said.
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A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Strikes are hugely disruptive for patients and put pressure on other NHS staff. We urge the BMA to carefully consider the likely impact of any action on patients.”
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