JUNIOR doctors have voted to end 18 months of strike chaos in exchange for a whopping 22 per cent pay rise.
The British Medical Association tonight accepted ministers’ offer of a settlement worth up to an extra £12,000 a year.
Members voted 66 per cent in favour of the deal after strike leaders told them it was the best they would get.
It brings to an end the NHS’ longest ever industrial action, which saw 44 days of walkouts by more than 20,000 doctors over a year-and-a-half.
More than 1.5million appointments were cancelled and waiting lists increased from 7.3million to 7.6m.
Ringleaders Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi on Monday called the salary boost “modest”.
And they have threatened to strike again next year without another decent raise.
They said: “This deal marks the end of 15 years of pay erosion with the beginning of two years of modest above inflation pay rises.
“There is still a long way to go, with doctors remaining 20.8 per cent in real terms behind where we were in 2008.
“Mr Streeting has acknowledged our pay has fallen behind and has talked about a journey to pay restoration.
“He believes the independent pay review body is the right vehicle for this, but in the event that it disappoints, he needs to be prepared for the consequences.
“The campaign is not over but we can be proud of how far we have come.”
The deal is a combination of backdated and current pay rises, plus an added £1,000 across the board.
It increases a junior doctor’s starting salary from £29,384 to £36,616.
Pay in the final years of training will rise to £70,425, up from £58,398 under the previous contract – a £12,000 uplift.
The agreement is a boon for the new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, who pledged to succeed where the Conservative Government failed.
Mr Streeting said: “Things should never have been allowed to get this bad.
“That’s why I made ending the strikes a priority, and we negotiated an end to them in just three weeks.
“I am pleased that our offer has been accepted, ending the strikes ahead of looming winter pressures on the NHS.
“This marks the necessary first step in our mission to cut waiting lists, reform the broken health service and make it fit for the future.”
Amanda Pritchard, chief of NHS England, said: “This agreement is excellent news for patients.”
The total package will cost taxpayers around £1 billion.
When the offer was announced, Dr Laurenson and Dr Trivedi said: “We are recommending that members vote for the deal.
“We believe that this is the best offer available at this moment in time, acknowledging there is still more work to be done in the future.”
The impact of the industrial action has been felt in the short- and long-term.
Appointments were cancelled during the walkouts and experts say they also thwarted attempts to bring down the waiting list.
Hospitals in England still have a total waiting list of 7.6million – about the same as a year ago – with NHS chiefs and ministers saying strikes have made it harder to clear the backlog.
In at least one case a strike has been blamed for contributing to a patient’s death.
Daphne Austin, 71, died of sepsis in June last year after developing complications that were not properly treated during a junior doctors’ strike, a coroner ruled.
Robert Cohen, coroner for Cumbria, said: “Neglect contributed to Ms Austin’s death.”
The British Medical Association said Ms Austin’s condition was worsened by the NHS trusts “lack of preparation” for the strike.
HEALTH Secretary Victoria Atkins said in May that the BMA's decision to strike in the last days of the general election campaign showed the walkouts were only ever political.
The junior doctors' committee is seen to be left wing and opposed to the Conservative Party – but claimed they would not go any easier on a Labour government.
When it announced July's strike before the election, the committee's leaders said: "When we entered mediation we did so under the impression that we had a functioning government that would soon be making an offer. Clearly no offer is now forthcoming."
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said the choice of dates was a "highly cynical tactic".
She wrote on X: "Announcing this during an election and on Labour’s health day shows this was only ever political and not about patients or staff."
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