The Scottish LMCs conference has condemned the ‘derisory’ 2022-23 pay award for doctors in Scotland and backed the BMA’s consideration of collective industrial action to challenge it.
A motion which passed at the LMC earlier this month (2 December) called for an uplift that ‘reflects both the current rate of inflation and the real terms erosion in remuneration that has occurred over recent years’.
GPC Scotland chair Dr Andrew Buist said in his opening speech at the event that general practice in Scotland was being ‘strangled by a severe lack of funding’
It was announced earlier this year that GPs in Scotland would receive a 4.5% pay rise, but GP leaders said it did not go far enough.
BMA Scotland has already announced plans to ballot its junior doctor members on strike action, subject to approval from the BMA’s UK Council.
LMC leaders in England voted in favour of the BMA balloting GP members on industrial or collective action if no ‘meaningful’ contract changes are agreed in 2023/24 or 2024 onwards, Pulse reported last week, with junior doctors in England to be balloted from 9 January.
Motion in full
103 Lothian: That this conference condemns the derisory 2022-23 pay award for doctors in Scotland and
i. calls for an uplift that reflects both the current rate of inflation and the real terms erosion in remuneration that has occurred over recent years
ii. supports the BMA’s consideration of collective industrial action as a mechanism for challenging the pay award.
Waste of bloody time!
Buist is opposed to any form of industrial action.
This may become negative when they announce raise salaries for other primary care staff without any funding and this extra ‘rise’ will have have to be used to pay for this!