HCSA – the hospital doctors’ union has issued the following response to the Autumn statement:
HCSA President Dr Naru Narayanan said: “The Chancellor has today failed to seize the chance to tackle the haemorrhaging of NHS hospital doctors at a time when we’re already over 10,000 short.
“No action on the pensions tax trap driving senior hospital doctors into early retirement. Not a word on the unjust ‘CPI disconnect’ which threatens thousands of doctors with tax bills because of a fault the government has acknowledged but still not fixed.
“More senior hospital doctors discouraged from taking overtime by a lower 45 percent income threshold even as real-terms pay is cut and cut again. Nothing to contradict the Health Secretary’s remit letter to the pay review body this week promoting further pay cuts next year.
“For five years we have been waiting for a workforce plan. Confirmation it will include detail on staffing numbers needed is welcome, but further delay until next year is unfathomable when things are so critical.
“We are in an unprecedented situation where junior doctors are voting in strike ballots and senior doctors are voting with their feet. The government must urgently rethink its approach.”
ENDS