Undeserved wage rises leave us all paying the bill

DOING less work for more money is never a good bargaining position. Following the collapse in face-to-face appointments with doctors, it seems an odd time for the medical profession to demand an eye-watering 30 per cent increase in pay.

- Tim Newark

A recent Government poll revealed that six in 10 GPs now work a three-day week and a third of all family doctors want to retire within five years, citing a better work-life balance as the main reason – hardly surprising when they’re on an average wage of £100,000 a year.

“All of us deserve comfort and pleasure in our lives,” said the junior doctor who proposed the strike action on Monday, revealing that this is a lifestyle request they hope will be funded by the apparently neverending generosity of the hardpressed taxpayer.

Already our National Insurance tax has gone up this year to supposedly provide £12billion extra money to help the NHS recover from Covid, but how much will get swallowed up in wage increases? If the doctors get their way, very little will find its way into frontline equipment and supplies.

New Labour prime minister Tony Blair started the ball rolling by throwing taxpayers’ money at the NHS with little improvement. In 1997, he gave £1billion to the NHS. Yet within months, waiting lists had soared by 14 per cent.

UNDER New Labour, GPs got a 26 per cent pay increase plus more generous pensions and a reduction in hours – but still performance did not improve.