BMA: New strike dates can be avoided if govt talks to us
The chair of the consultants committee of the British Medical Association says upcoming strikes, including new dates announced for October, can be avoided if the government stops avoiding talks. Senior doctors are walking out today, operating on a "Christmas day cover" basis meaning emergency care will still be provided, until 7am on Saturday. Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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NewsTranscript
00:00 No consultant wants to be striking today, but we've been put in this position because
00:04 for over the 14 years we've had pay cuts after pay cut after pay cut.
00:09 Despite trying everything, despite engaging with the pay review process, despite trying
00:13 to speak to government, they haven't come back to us with an offer and have imposed
00:17 another very significant real terms pay cut on consultants this year again.
00:23 It's changed over a longer period than that, but it's changed very significantly and we've
00:27 seen the pressures that the NHS is now under.
00:30 So I've been a consultant now for 12 years and when I first started it was very different.
00:36 You had time to see your patients, there wasn't these issues with huge waiting lists.
00:41 When you were trying to get a consultant job it was incredibly competitive, you had lots
00:44 of people applying for jobs when they came up.
00:48 Now we've got huge pressures, every department across the country nearly is having difficulty
00:53 recruiting consultants, over half of the departments in the country have vacancies.
00:59 That's unheard of when I trained and it's a real detriment to patient care.
01:05 We've done everything for the consultant strikes to make sure patients are kept safe, so as
01:09 I mentioned all emergency services are running today and so we've made every effort to make
01:14 sure patients are safe.
01:15 And similarly when the juniors are taking action, the consultants have provided that
01:19 emergency cover so we've kept patients as safe as possible during this and we think
01:23 that patients will be safe during the period of industrial action.
01:27 We feel awful that patients are caught in the middle of this.
01:31 The dispute here is with government and as I say we've got more strikes planned for September
01:37 and we've announced more dates for October but these can all be averted if the government
01:41 actually sit down and talk to us and give us a credible offer.
01:44 We've been completely reasonable in our demands, we're only asking for fairness, we're asking
01:48 for our pay not to be cut, we're asking for the pay review process to actually be restored
01:53 to its original principles.
01:54 It's the government that are refusing to talk to us and actually the costs that you talk
01:58 about, in many cases those figures are enough to settle some of these pay disputes.
02:02 It's really disappointing the government have come out with that so we had very productive
02:05 conversations with the Department of Health officials in the run up to the Prime Minister's
02:09 announcement.
02:10 We thought we were close to actually an agreement that would have averted all of these strikes
02:13 and for the Prime Minister to come out at the last minute like that with such strong
02:16 language that he's not going to talk to us I think was really challenging and actually
02:23 has forced these strikes to happen.
02:25 Well consultants have not taken this decision lightly, it's taken 14 years of pay cuts to
02:30 bring us to this point.
02:32 Clearly we need a resolution and our consultants are committed that they will not stop until
02:36 there's a resolution.
02:37 It's very simple, the government just needs to sit down and talk to us about pay and actually
02:42 come with us with a credible offer.
02:44 So we've been really clear that all we're asking for this year is a pay rise that's
02:48 above inflation at a time the pay award was essentially applicable for.
02:52 So the pay award was in April so we wanted above inflation pay awards based on the April
02:57 figures.
02:58 But beyond that we want a review of the pay review process so it's absolutely critical
03:02 that we have a fair process for setting consultants' pay and doctors' pay.
03:06 That process has been fiddled with and constrained for so many years which is why we're in this
03:11 situation.
03:12 So all we're asking for is just treat us fairly, don't cut our pay this year, make
03:16 sure we have a fair process for setting pay in the years to come.