Consultants (Contract) (Hansard, 10 January 1978)

§ 13. Mr. MacGregor
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will make a statement about the consultants' contract.

§ Mr. Ennals
In January of last year I agreed to the starting of talks with the British Medical Association, on a without-commitment basis, about the principles of a new consultants' contract. Formal negotiations and implementation were to be deferred until pay policy permitted. The association accepted and submitted proposals for a new contract. Discussions between officials and representatives of the medical profession commenced in February, and became formal negotiations in August with the end of stage 2 of pay policy. A substantial measure of agreement has been reached, but a number of issues remain to be resolved. My aim is to secure agreement on a contract that is both fair to consultants and in the best interests of the NHS and its patients.

§ Mr. MacGregor
Will the contract allow consultants to act as they wish in 1429 their non-contractual hours? Is the Secretary of State aware that many consultants are now receiving pay substantially below that of the junior hospital doctors working under them, and that new consultants are having to accept substantial reductions in pay to achieve promotion? The Review Body pointed out yesterday that there are now great injustices in the pay of doctors and dentists. Will the Secretary of State take prompt action to sort out these matters?

§ Mr. Ennals
I agree that anomalies have resulted from the application of the pay policy, but the situation affects not only the medical profession but people in all walks of life, and I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will agree that the Government's pay guidelines must be as applicable to the medical profession as they are to other sections of society. However, the Review Body is carefully looking at these issues.

§ Dr. M. S. Miller
Will my right hon. Friend resist any attempts by the consultants to bring about a situation which will reduce the incentive payment to consultants who work full-time in the National Health Service? Will he also take on board the possibility that he should be considering full-time work in the NHS as being the norm and that the abnormal aspect should be part-time consultancy?

§ Mr. Ennals
I have a great deal of sympathy with the point made by my hon. Friend. I assure him and the House that I am quite determined in these negotiations to ensure that any new contract continues to recognise the primacy of whole-time commitment to the National Health Service. It would be wrong to undertake in any new contract anything that served to discourage an increasing number of consultants from giving their whole time to the National Health Service.

§ Mr. Patrick Jenkin
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Opposition very much welcome the report of the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration, published yesterday? Can he tell the House quite firmly that if, in its forthcoming study, the Review Body recommends a phased programme of restoring the pay of doctors and dentists to a proper relationship with other profess- 1430 sional bodies which does not conflict with the Government's pay policy, the Government will accept that recommendation and guarantee to carry it out, as they have done for the firemen?

§ Mr. Ennals
I never answer hypothetical questions. We must wait to see the Review Body's report, which will become available round about April. The interim report that the Review Body made at the request of the British Medical Association was also in many ways welcomed by Her Majesty's Government because it recognised the importance of the 12-month rule. We must now wait to see what the Review Body says, but it understands the attitude that the Government take towards guidelines, and, as I have said, the House would not expect that the medical profession, or any other group in the National Health Service, should be exempt from the general rules that cover the population as a whole.