CAVING into junior doctors’ pay demands would unleash a £31 billion wave of NHS walkouts, government insiders have warned – a sum equal to one fifth of the entire NHS budget.
The government says that awarding the 29% rise demanded by the British Medical Association (BMA) would lead to immediate demands for parity across the entire health service from nurses and midwives to paramedics and porters. This would cost £31 billion a year according to a new internal government analysis.
A senior Whitehall source said: “A 29 percent pay rise for resident doctors would have to also be awarded to all NHS staff, for fairness and to prevent other parts of the workforce going on strike as a result. This would cost £31 billion according to an analysis by Whitehall officials, equivalent to 1/5th of the NHS’s total budget last year.”
He added that to find this money the DHSC, “would have to scrap the entire budget for GP’s ambulances, mental health and dentistry.
“Alternatively the government would have to abolish the entire Department for Transport to cover the cost, which would mean scrapping Network Rail, bus fare subsidies, all aviation and maritime safety and road maintenance.”
Yet despite these dire warnings, the next walkout is pressing ahead and the Sunday Express can reveal senior NHS consultants on six-figure salaries are now quietly cancelling their own elective clinics to “support” striking medics.
They are also billing the NHS up to £2,504 per overnight shift to cover the work of absent junior doctors – using the BMA’s own rate card.
Consultants are charging:
£188 per hour during the day
£250 per hour at weekends
£313 per hour overnight
A senior NHS advisor said: “Consultants are having their cake and eating it. They cancel their own clinics, then cash in by covering shifts they made vacant.”
A government source added: “No wonder the BMA says they are ‘excited’ to launch a new wave of strikes on the NHS. Reasonable and responsible doctors will ignore the BMA’s attempts to use industrial action as a Get Rich Quick scheme.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has refused to bow to what he calls “unaffordable and unreasonable” demands, warning of a domino effect across the public sector.
The five-day strike, set to begin on July 25, could exceed last year’s action, which saw over one million appointments cancelled – including cancer operations.
The news comes after it was revealed five patient deaths have been directly linked to care delays during previous walkouts, including 71-year-old Daphne Austin, who died of sepsis after missing a critical check-up. Coroners issued formal Prevention of Future Deaths notices citing systemic risk.
Nick Hulme, CEO of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “It was very alarming to see that there have been five deaths potentially attributable to last year’s junior doctors strike – and I suspect there could be more.
“I would urge both sides in this to understand that it is actually patients who are paying the price and the only people who are suffering are patients and therefore both sides need to find a solution. Already they are waiting too long and the NHS is under huge pressure and this will only make it worse. We know there is a greater risk of death or harm to patients if you take significant numbers of the workforce out.”
According to new polling, backing for junior doctor strikes plunged from 52% to just 26% in the past year.
Last week Wes Streeting reopened talks focused on non-pay reforms – such as student loan relief and better working conditions – but warned: “We cannot go beyond the 28.9% rise doctors have already received.”
BMA negotiator Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: “We are open to a number of solutions that address the cost of living of resident doctors. We believe that pay remains the simplest and most effective way towards improving their working lives. However, we are keen to explore additional measures the Government could agree to help restore the value and wellbeing of resident doctors.
“We remain willing to meet with Mr Streeting as many times as we can in the coming days to find an acceptable solution that delivers for doctors, patients, and the NHS.”
The BMA declined to comment on allegations of clinic cancellations, stating only that its rate card applies “across all staffing shortages.”