BMA accuses trust of ‘gambling’ with overtime pay cut
The British Medical Association has accused a large hospital trust of “gambling” with doctors’ pay rates, and entered a formal dispute with the organisation.
The union said it had entered a formal dispute with Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust, saying rates for additional work were imposed with a week’s notice earlier this month. Some doctors could see their rates for extra-contractual work drop as much as 16 per cent, the BMA claimed.
Doctors at the £1.5bn-turnover trust have been told by the union not to work outside contracted hours for the reduced rates from the start of next month, while the BMA has urged the trust to U-turn.
Fia Muratib, deputy chair of the BMA’s regional resident doctors committee and a local negotiating committee representative, said: “Cutting waiting lists relies on doctors who are willing to take on extra work on top of their contracted hours.
“We know that, as of September 2024, there were 166,315 people on the waiting list to start treatment at MSEFT. It is incomprehensible that the trust would now slash pay for this vital work.
“By lowering the rates for these shifts, the trust is gambling that doctors will do the same work for less. If they are wrong, this will lead to understaffed wards, burned out doctors, and increased risk to patient safety.”
MSE runs three general hospitals in the county.
Its medical director Christine Blanshard told HSJ: “It is absolutely right that a trust should regularly review the rates that it pays to ensure it is benchmarking itself against similar organisations and that it is spending public money responsibly. We have committed to doing that on an annual basis.
“The safety of our patients is always our top priority, which is why we must spend the money we have available to us in an efficient and responsible way to ensure the highest possible standards of care across all our services and departments.
“We have continued to have an open dialogue with our medical staff and are committed to working together for the good of our patients.”
The trust said it spent an “unsustainable amount of money” on bank and agency staffing, and that peers in the region were bringing spending down. However, UHB later apologised in a letter to its resident doctors and consultants, stating that discussions were “not broad enough” and were “poorly communicated”.
Local and regional rows over medical over-time rates have exploded in many areas since the pandemic.
The BMA has sought to push up rates over recent years, and trusts are now coming under increasing financial pressure and seeking to reduce spend.
Some BMA leaders have said they sought to negotiate nationally on the rates, but have been turned down.