The British Medical Association warns that the UK government’s proposal to raise doctors’ pay by just 2.5% for 2026 amounts to a real‑terms pay cut, calling it “neglect dressed up as restraint”
The British Medical Association (BMA) has publicly condemned the Government’s proposed 2.5% pay uplift for doctors next year, arguing that it falls well below inflation and represents a “real‑terms pay cut”. According to the union, newly qualified doctors would see their hourly wage rise from £18.62 to just £19.09, despite inflation rates of 4.5%.
BMA slams government pay plan as undercutting doctors amid inflation crisis
In a recent document, the Department for Health and Social Care said it has ‘developed financial and delivery plans which currently allow for a pay uplift of 2.5% without having to make trade-offs against headline government health commitments’.
The BMA has responded to the Government, suggesting that this proposal constitutes a real-terms pay cut for doctors, especially given the current RPI inflation rate of 4.5%. With this figure in mind, newly qualified doctors would see a rise of only 47p per hour, with hourly pay increasing from £18.62 to £19.09.
Before this proposal, the BMA had called upon the Government to agree a multi-year pay deal to help restore doctors’ pay to 2008 levels in absolute terms and support foundation year doctors at risk of under-employment.
Responding to the Government’s publication of evidence to the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration, BMA council chair Tom Dolphin said: “It is frankly indefensible that yet another Government is once again suggesting a real-terms pay cut for doctors – an increase of less than 50p per hour for many newly qualified doctors.
“After more than a decade of pay erosion, spiralling workloads, and an NHS in a state of near chaos, this is a deliberate choice to devalue those who hold the health service together, a profound disregard for our doctors and the state of the profession.
“This is not responsible governance; it is a calculated decision to let a vital profession bear the cost of political failure. Each sub-inflation offer pushes more doctors to leave the NHS or the country altogether, and it is patients who ultimately bear the brunt of this foolishness.
“At a time when so many resident doctors are struggling to secure training posts and GPs cannot get jobs – a shocking waste of talent in a system that is chronically short of staff – we have ministers who think it is acceptable to pay the doctors we do have an insult, rather than a decent wage.
“The Government’s failure to provide fair pay, adequate positions for doctors in training, and jobs for GPs exposes a complete lack of long-term planning or respect for the profession.
“After hard-won reforms by consultants to restore the independence of the pay review body, the BMA wants to see that independence come to the fore when the DDRB makes its recommendation for doctors’ pay in 2026. We expect the DDRB to recommend an uplift that is just that and not a pay cut.
“For this Government to even consider recommending what amounts to a pay cut isn’t prudence; it’s neglect dressed up as restraint.”
