In his first interview since becoming chairman of the board of the British Medical Association, Professor Philip Banfield warned ministers that doctors will fight them by using a pay dispute to tell the public that patients are dying as a direct result of government policy neglect of the NHS. Members of the doctors’ union voted last month to increase their pay by 30 percent over the next five years. This would amount to a “full wage restoration” for the real income cut they have suffered since 2008 through multi-year wage freezes and 1% or 2% annual increases. Ministers criticized the claim as unrealistic and unattainable. Banfield said: “Doctors are angry, frustrated and feel undervalued. There is very, very serious resentment [about pay]. After 14 years doctors are worth 30% less? No. I mean, if anything, they’re worth 30% more. “It is almost inevitable that the path any government takes will lead us into direct conflict with them. Why do we do it? If you don’t have doctors, you don’t have the NHS.’ The strikes will likely take place next spring, he added. His comments come as ministers prepare to announce the pay award for all UK NHS staff in the coming days, after taking into account advice from the two health service pay review bodies. Health unions have already warned of possible walkouts by NHS staff if they don’t get rises that at least match inflation, which is running at 9.1%. In a major hardening of the BMA’s position, Banfield added that junior doctors want the 30% rise to be “immediate” and not phased in over the next five years. Junior doctors are more ready to take action over pay now than when they staged a series of walkouts in 2015-16 in protest at a new contract imposed by then-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, he said. They are “on a collision course with the government,” Banfield added. “We know from our activists that the appetite is very high. They more or less accept that industrial action is inevitable. We don’t want to have industrial action if we can avoid it. But it will happen. It will be inevitable. They feel they’ve been led into it,” he said. Doctors would explore every avenue before venturing out to ensure NHS services are running normally. “Nobody wants to go on strike. We will try to avoid it. But this is not at all costs. Because there is no sell-out here,” Banfield added, in comments that highlight why some BMA board members privately refer to him as “the Mick Lynch of the BMA” – a reference to the plain-spoken general secretary of rail union RMT. The starting salary for a Foundation year one doctor, the entry level for junior – or trainee – doctors is £29,384. All doctors are ‘junior’ until they become consultants, usually in their mid to late 30s. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Recalling that ministers had rejected the 30% claim, Banfield said: “This kind of rhetoric from the government saying ‘go ahead, we’re ready to fight the doctors’ is not helping. But it’s the same “bring it” [mindset] this says “if you really want to know how bad the health service you preside over is, fund and audit [is]then we will tell the public how bad it is and what a desperate situation it is in. “The public is already witnessing an NHS that is falling apart in places. It can’t be right for them to lie on a floor with a broken hip for eight hours. My wife [a GP] he had a patient in a life-threatening diabetic coma, and he couldn’t get an ambulance to take her to the hospital. People are lying on a trolley for three days in an emergency department. That is where our NHS is now. “GPs talk to elderly patients about not going to hospital when they should be in hospital because they don’t want to die on a trolley in a corridor. People die waiting for attention. What kind of NHS is this?’ Banfield added that he expects most of the public to support the doctors if they do. “This is about fighting for them and their NHS. Our message to the public would be that there may be some short-term disruption to prove to the government that they should get this [doctors’ pay] seriously.” Giving doctors the significant pay rise they deserve would cost less than the “appalling” £6.2 billion the NHS in England spends on temporary staff, it claims. “It is more expensive to pay diseases than to pay doctors properly. Not only is it absurd, but the belief that this is not common sense. If they can find £37 billion for a test and detection system that didn’t work, that’s actually a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things to start rebuilding their NHS.” Doctors may seek to coordinate any walkouts with other groups of health workers to maximize their effectiveness, Banfield said. “Will we talk to other unions? Of course we will.” A government spokesman said: “The government wants fair pay for nurses, doctors and taxpayers and is carefully considering the recommendations of independent pay review bodies. “We are incredibly grateful to all NHS staff who received a 3% pay rise last year – increasing nurses’ pay by £1,000 on average despite the public sector pay freeze – and we are giving NHS workers another pay rise this year” .
