Pay deal with hospital consultants would be a positive step in ending NHS crisis

Whether that be nurses, ambulance workers or junior doctors, the failure to agree pay deals has added to the backlog of appointments in the NHS and left A&E departments at a breaking point.

While there are questions to be asked about the long-term funding of the NHS, given the astronomical costs of funding the NHS already more and more money can’t continually be thrown at it, the fact that consultants in England have reached a new deal with the Government is a positive step.

It could potentially draw a line under the ongoing dispute over pay with the British Medical Association (BMA) and Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) now putting the offer to their members.

This will mean that top hospital doctors will get a rise of between 6 per cent and 19.6 per cent.

If accepted then it will be a welcome relief to the thousands of patients who have had appointments and operations cancelled.

However, the elephant in the room is the Government’s failure to strike a deal with junior doctors. An acceptable offer needs to be made to junior doctors and it needs to be made fast so that patient care doesn’t continue to be disrupted.

The title of junior doctor does a disservice to the medical professionals in these positions. They are on the frontline, serving as full-time doctors. They are certainly not, as Health Secretary Victoria Atkins likes to refer to them, just “doctors in training”.

Cynics will suggest that the Government has reached this deal with consultants to limit damage at the upcoming general election. But the past few years have already really eroded trust across the healthcare profession in this Government.