The Scottish Government has reached agreement with the  British Medical Association (BMA) of a 12.4% pay increase for junior doctors and doctors in training for 2023/24.

The deal also includes a commitment to future years pay, contract and pay bargaining modernisation.

A statement from the BMA said: “As a result SJDC has suspended strike action. This means the planned 72 hour walkout from 12-15th July will not go ahead.

“At this stage, our negotiation team feels we have reached the limit of what can be achieved this year and does not think strike action would result in a realistically improved offer. Equally, it could potentially endanger the commitment that the Scottish Government has offered to work with us to achieve pay restoration as an alternative to a sustained and escalated industrial dispute.

“It is our view that acceptance of this offer is the best way of achieving full pay restoration for doctors in Scotland. SJDC is therefore recommending that the following offer is accepted by the membership. “

The pay offer must now go to a consultative ballot on whether or not to be accepted by the membership. Read more about the details of the pay offer.

The Scottish Government has also accepted the 6% pay increase for senior NHS staff recommended by the independent Doctors and Dentists Pay Review Body (DDRB). The award will mean NHS Scotland senior medical and dental staff, general medical practitioners and general dental practitioners will receive a 6% pay increase for this year, backdated to 1 April 2023. For a consultant this means a rise of £5,488 at the bottom of the pay scale and £7,292 at the top. Junior doctors across Scotland have been offered a 14.5% pay uplift over the two year period 2022-24, following negotiations with BMA Scotland. This, however, has not been accepted and industrial action is still on the cards.

160,000 NHS staff in Scotland – including nurses, midwives, paramedics, allied health professionals, porters and others – will receive an average 6.5% increase in pay in 2023-24. All staff will also receive a one-off pro rata payment of between £387 and £939 depending on banding.

There is an uneasy time ahead for the NHS but remember what life was like before its creation 75 years ago. It remains the most significant positive Act passed by any Government across the UK which has directly benefitted countless millions of lives

When men and women were called up in 1939 to serve, the state of the health of many citizens was so alarming that politicians of the growing Labour movement vowed to do something about it by creating a National Health Service. Very few people now remember the days when you had to pay a doctor to attend you, you had to pay for your medicines and for any treatment you received. For those with money this was not a problem but for the majority of the population the costs meant that many went without the medical care they required. Simply put – people suffered and died because they couldn’t pay.

Providing modern health facilities does cost money, new equipment, preventative measures like cancer screening kits, skilled staff, and of course, most recently, responding to a deadly and life changing pandemic.

Today, in Scotland, we have a NHS which continues to provide free care at point of need which we all contribute to through our taxes. Preventative health initiatives mean that many screening processes, for instance for bowel cancer, can be done simply at home. In Scotland NHS prescriptions are free. No one need worry about paying for medication because all of us contribute via our tax system linked to how much income we have.

In England, there is a different model of Health System, but for the time being there is still the NHS. It is under dreadful stress due to decades of underfunding by successive UK Tory Governments. A consequence of which was the lack of appropriate PPE at the start of the pandemic in 2020.

Many doctors were against the setting up of a National Health Service in 1948 but few today would take that opinion. It was a huge undertaking to transfer over the services provided privately to a state administered service, but so important was the creation of the NHS that despite those difficulties, perseverance won the day.

On 5 July we start together, the new National Health Service. It has not had an altogether trouble-free gestation. There have been understandable anxieties, inevitable in so great and novel an undertaking. Nor will there be overnight any miraculous removal of our more serious shortages of nurses and others and of modern replanned buildings and equipment. But the sooner we start, the sooner we can try to see these things and to secure the improvements we all want. My job is to give you all the facilities, resources and help I can, and then to leave you alone as professional men and women to use your skills and judgement without hindrance. Let us try to develop that partnership from now on. Aneurin Bevan , The Lancet 1948

During the pandemic, our health and social service workers remained in the front line, delivering an outstanding service to all. Those same workers are now facing up against a UK Tory Government undervaluing them as pay claims are not met.

Fiona Grahame