Making an unaffordable pay recommendation for general practice and NHS staff will ‘significantly’ impact patient care and make the job ‘even harder’, NHS England has told the pay review bodies today.
Yesterday, the government revealed in its submissions to the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) and to the NHS Pay Review Body that it has set aside funding to offer nurses and other health workers a maximum 2.8% pay rise for 2025/26.
The NHS England submission said that NHS staff ‘work incredibly hard’ and that it wants to see them ‘fairly rewarded’, in a way that ‘strikes the right balance’ on resources so that they have the ability to deliver the care they want to for patients.
It also said that pay remains ‘the largest component of NHS costs’ – around 65% of total operating costs – and that pay inflation ‘represents a material cost pressure’ that the NHS ‘needs to plan for and manage’.
It said: ‘Our view on affordability considers the likely NHS budget from discussions to date with DHSC and what was set out by HM Treasury in the Autumn Budget 2024.
‘Based on this, we propose to set allocations for NHS planning on the basis of a 2.8% pay settlement. Every 0.5% increase above that costs around £700m; which is the equivalent to around 2% of elective activity (greater than 300k completed patient pathways).
‘We have already made significant prioritisation decisions. Pay awards above what has already been allocated will require further tough re-prioritisation of the decisions already made, significantly impacting patient care and in turn making the day-to-day job of NHS staff even harder.’
The DDRB and NHS Pay review body has been taking evidence ahead of its recommendation, but the timing of submissions suggests it will come earlier than in recent years, as health secretary Wes Streeting has instructed.
According to the DHSC’s submission document, arrangements for the 2025/26 GP contract are currently ‘subject to consultation’ with the BMA’s GP Committee, with final details to be published in spring 2025.
Responding to the submissions, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) chief executive and general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger said a 2.8% uplift would be ‘worth as little as £2 extra a day, less than the price of a coffee’.
‘Nursing is in crisis – there are fewer joining and too many experienced professionals leaving,’ she said.
‘This is deeply offensive to nursing staff, detrimental to their patients and contradictory to hopes of rebuilding the NHS.’
Meanwhile, British Medical Association chair of council Professor Philip Banfield said the proposed pay rise ‘indicates a poor grasp of the unresolved issues’ in the NHS.
He said: ‘It is far below the current rate of inflation experienced by doctors in their daily lives and does not move significantly closer to restoring the relative value of doctors’ pay lost over the past 15 years.’
In July this year, the DDRB recommended a 6% pay rise for all UK GPs and employed general practice staff, and the government accepted this recommendation in full.
However, the DDRB only advises on pay increases and not the total funding uplift received by practices, which was later set by the government at a 7.4% uplift to the global sum for 2024/25.
A version of this article was first published by our sister title Pulse
