NHS junior doctors have condemned a new contract imposed on them, which they fear will cut their pay by up to 40%, force them to work more antisocial shifts and put some off becoming GPs or A&E medics.



They have pledged to resist the move by ministers, which they say is “bad for patients, bad for junior doctors and bad for the NHS”. The joint leader of the 53,000 junior doctors in England affected has indicated that they may even go on strike in protest.

The contract, which will come into force next summer, will reclassify junior doctors’ normal working week, known as “plain time”, to include Saturday and stretch up to 10pm every night of the week except Sunday.

It will see the period counted as a normal working week, in which a junior doctor can work what is usually around 48 hours, change from being the 60 hours from 7am to 7pm between Monday and Friday, to 90 hours from 7am to 10pm between Monday and Saturday. They will lose out by no longer earning extra pay as evenings and Saturdays will be paid at the standard rate.

The Department of Health decided earlier this week to impose the new contract after the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee refused to re-enter negotiations over it, despite the independent Doctors’ and Dentists’ remuneration review body recommending the new system.

The BMA is warning that treating Saturday evening working as the same as Tuesday afternoon working will discourage junior doctors from choosing to go into medical specialties where urgent and emergency care means they often work outside normal hours, such as A&E.

Junior doctors – who are widely seen as the workhorses of the NHS, working longer hours as they make their way in medicine – have reacted with fury, with some claiming that they have been “shafted” by health secretary Jeremy Hunt, and others warning that the “devastating blow” will hit already low medical morale.

One junior doctor said the move would mean that his pay goes down significantly, from about £31,000 – his basic salary of almost £23,000 plus 40% more for working one evening until 9pm and one weekend in four – to close to his basic earnings. “None of us feel we need to be paid more. We already work far longer than our allotted hours for free as patients’ care requires it. We just don’t want extreme cuts to our salaries,” he said. Junior doctors reacted with “absolute horror” to the imposition of the new terms and conditions.

There are fears that the ongoing efforts to encourage more newly qualified medical students to become family doctors will be undermined by the new contract also getting rid of the supplement paid to those choosing to enter general practice, to equalise their pay with that of those choosing hospital medicine. Removal could see trainee GPs lose about a third of their pay, as the supplement gives trainee GPs £14,328 in their first year, £15,481 in their second and £16,179 in their third.

“We urge the government not to impose a contract that is unsafe and unfair. We will resist a contract that is bad for patients, bad for junior doctors and bad for the NHS,” said Dr Andrew Collier, co-chair of the BMA junior doctors committee.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “We are disappointed that the BMA junior doctors committee has let down its members and decided against re-entering negotiations, especially in light of the consultants’ agreement to negotiate. There is independent support for an updated contract that puts patients first, increases basic pay and rewards those who work across all clinical specialities.”

The new contract offers junior doctors a better deal, including a big rise in basic salary and higher hourly rates for unsocial hours, he insisted.