Daily Insight: A proxy war

Yesterday we exclusively revealed a row has broken out between trust bosses and the British Medical Association over the doctors’ union’s campaign to drive up consultants’ hourly pay rates for extra shifts.

Those at the extreme ends of the argument pitch this as either: a “misjudged” attempt to secure exorbitant pay hikes (during a cost of living crisis) for some of the NHS’s highest paid staff, or: a justified play on behalf of a staff group who “have had enough of being overworked, underpaid and undervalued” by their employers and political overlords.

Most will however appreciate that there are merits to both sides’ arguments. Demand for pay uplift comes off the back of a period in which real-terms pay for an average consultant has fallen 34.9 per cent since 2008-09, even before another real-terms pay cut this year was factored in.

Consultants are right to feel aggrieved by this and the BMA is right to fight for the best deal for its members.

Equally, trust bosses have a duty not only to do what is within their gift to offer fair rates to all their staff, not just one group – however powerful – but also to ensure their hospitals are providing optimal services for their patients. So, their unease is also understandable.

The BMA’s “rate card” demands are widely viewed by NHS bosses as the union trying to leverage the elective work to push the government into giving them a better pay award.

With a hugely challenging winter ahead, both sides will also appreciate the need to come to some agreement over the pay rates to ensure the NHS is able to work optimally for its patients.

Rosie future

A campaigning Labour MP is ending her political career after 17 years and joining the board of a mental health trust, triggering a by-election in her West Lancashire constituency – the first of Liz Truss’s premiership.

As first reported by HSJ, Rosie Cooper’s appointment as chair of Mersey Care Foundation Trust comes after what she described as a “considerable period of soul-searching and reflection”. 

Five years ago, Ms Cooper hit headlines after it emerged a 23-year-old man had planned her murder as part of a neo-Nazi terror plot. 

Despite some difficult years, the long-serving MP, who was elected in 2005, said in a statement that it had been an “incredible honour and privilege” to serve the people of West Lancashire.

Ms Cooper was born in Liverpool and held board roles in the city’s NHS, including as chair of Liverpool Women’s Hospital in the 1990s.

She has also sat on the health and social care committee and campaigned for improvements in her constituency, which covers Lancashire and South Cumbria FT, a fellow mental health trust which has struggled with care standards and finances in recent years.

Ms Cooper is expected to join Mersey Care later in the autumn, replacing current chair Beatrice Fraenkel.