Plans for senior doctors to strike over the Government's three per cent rise for NHS workers were put in motion today.
The British Medical Association – the country's biggest trade union for doctors – launched a survey today asking whether medics want to take industrial action over the 'bitterly disappointing' pay bump offered by the Government.
The Department of Health and Social Care announced the three per cent pay increase on Wednesday, saying it recognised the pandemic's 'unique impact' on the NHS.
But the BMA today slammed the below-inflation award and asked its members to report back on whether they want to strike.
The three-week survey will ask senior hospital doctors how the pay rise impacted their morale and whether they want to take any action.
If senior doctors choose to strike, it will be for the first time in decades.
Any industrial action could harm the NHS' ability to deal with any rise in Covid hospitalisations and the patient back-log, which the most recent figures reveled is currently at a record high of 5.3million.
The BMA warned earlier this month that a strike could involve stopping all paid and unpaid overtime, with doctors usually working an extra 20 per cent longer than their contracted hours every week.
BMA consultants committee chairman Dr Vishal Sharma said doctors have 'given their all' in leading the fight against Covid, at the expense of their own healthor lives. 'This pressure will only intensify as we begin to tackle the backlog of delayed treatment caused by the pandemic,' he said
Private sector workers were hit harder by pandemic and many will have gone without a pay rise last year, but data shows wage growth is recovering this year as the economy bounces back. Source: The National Institute Of Economic and Social Research
The number of people on the NHS waiting lists hit its highest-ever number of 5.12million last month, including around 65,000 people who have waited more than 18 months