“Dr Paul Donaldson, speaking on behalf of HCSA – the trade union for ALL hospital doctors.
“Hospital Doctors were not part of the group of NHS workers involved in the recent agreement which produced an inflation-busting settlement. The HCSA is delighted to support this motion, because it expresses two profound principles which go to the heart of successful trade unionism: These are solidarity and co-operation.
“We commend the unions involved for setting aside their sectional interests and working together to produce a real-terms increase in the pay of their members.
“For the past six years, the NHS has been starved of adequate levels of funding and this has bitten deeply into the real values of NHS workers’ pay.
“NHS workers have made Herculean efforts to deliver first-rate services with third-rate levels of funding. They have indeed subsidised the NHS.
“The recent agreement is hopefully the beginning of the end for this.
“There is a lesson for us hospital doctors in this. Currently, the expectation of the Department of Health and Social Care is that doctors will negotiate a three-year pay deal. But at present, the spirit of solidarity and co-operation between the recognised doctors’ unions is lacking.
“We hope that our fellow union will accept our entreaties to co-operate. We hope that the TUC will help us in this endeavour.”