Scotland’s practicing doctors have called off a planned four-day strike over pay. The strike was planned as part of a national strike organized by NHS staff, but after further negotiations, the British Medical Association union wants to suspend the strike and make a new salary offer to members.<\/p>\n
The new pay agreement includes a 4.25% pay rise in 2025-26, followed by a 3.75% increase in 2026-27. This offer is in line with one already accepted by nurses and other health workers. The pay deal comes with a separate package of contract reforms, which will see the basic salary for a newly qualified doctor rise from \u00a334,500 to \u00a337,345, and for a doctor with 10 years’ experience from \u00a371,549 to \u00a377,387 for 2026\/27.<\/p>\n
The contract reform package will move all practicing doctors in Scotland up the pay scale, meaning the combined offer represents an average year-end pay rise of 9.9% for 2025\/26 and 9.4% for 2026\/27. Resident physicians will receive different raises at different stages depending on where they are in their careers.<\/p>\n
Health Minister Neil Gray said the deal was “great news” and would avoid disruption to patient care. Dr. Chris Smith, chairman of the British Medical Association’s medical committee, said strike action had been a “last resort” for the union and the new offer would guarantee future improvements for staff.<\/p>\n
The total investment in the offer, which includes both pay and contract reform over the two-year period, will be \u00a3133 million. This represents an additional investment of \u00a3130 million in staff, a significant sum as the government seeks to control public sector wage costs.<\/p>\n
The deal is seen as a positive outcome for both the government and the union, as it avoids disruption to patient care and provides a significant investment in staff. The NHS is a top priority for both politicians and patients, and further investment in key health services is expected in the upcoming budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scotland’s Doctors Call Off Planned Strike Over Pay Scotland’s practicing doctors have called off a planned four-day strike over pay. The strike was planned as part of a national strike organized by NHS staff, but after further negotiations, the British Medical Association union wants to suspend the strike and make a new salary offer to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[6542,22130,3699,79,22129,8939,8090,484,12145,9093],"class_list":{"0":"post-29438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-british-medical-association","9":"tag-chris-smith-science-communicator","10":"tag-collective-bargaining","11":"tag-employment","12":"tag-neil-gray","13":"tag-public-sector","14":"tag-salary","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-strike-action","17":"tag-trade-union"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29440,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29438\/revisions\/29440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}