Hospitals and GP clinics are being warned to prepare for a summer of strikes by doctors.
Contingency arrangements for the first strike, due on June 21, are being affected by the extended Diamond Jubilee weekend, which coincides with the half-term school holidays. With many doctors expected to be on leave, they are unlikely to make clear their intention to support the strike until the following week, which effectively leaves NHS employers with less than two weeks to cancel operations and procedures and to reschedule consultations.
Of greater concern, however, is the threat of a series of similar strikes that could last all summer in the absence of a negotiated settlement with the Department of Health. One source said that leaders of the British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, believed that “sustained” industrial action was the only way of forcing the Government back to the negotiating table.
The BMA has set the date for the first strike but has the backing of members to arrange further industrial action. The BMA has said that it intends to consider the impact of this month’s 24-hour strike before deciding its next move.
Yesterday Dean Royles, director of the NHS Employers organisation, said: “Employers will be working long and hard to put robust plans in place for 21 June. But as this is a live ballot they will be mindful of the potential for further to industrial action to follow.
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“Employers will always make patient safety their number one priority.”
The strike by doctors, the first in almost 40 years, is over proposed changes to their pension scheme. Doctors are being asked to increase their monthly contributions and to work until the age 68. Doctors accuse the Government of going back on a deal on pensions agreed four years ago.
Their decision to go on strike at time when many public sector employees are being forced to accept changes to their own pension schemes as well as pay freezes has caused a great deal of anger. Doctors are among the best paid employees in the NHS and, by most standards, will continue to receive generous pensions even if the latest changes are accepted.
According to calculations by the Department of Health, a typical full-time consultant retiring at 60 will receive a pension of more than £48,000 a year for life and a tax-free lump sum of about £143,000. For the same pension and lump sum, an average 40-year-old consultant would only need to work an extra two and a half years and a 24-year-old doctor starting out on their medical career would build up the same amount a little after the age of 66.
A doctor joining the new scheme after 2015 can expect a pension of over £53,000 at age 65 (the normal pension age for new joiners at the moment). At his state pension age of 68 he could expect a pension of about £68,000 per year.
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The average NHS pension is £7,300 a year.