Consultants accept new NHS contract

Hospital doctors in England today voted to accept their new NHS contract, the British Medical Association said.

Some 26,000 consultants and 8,000 specialist registrars were balloted over the last three weeks after lengthy negotiations between the BMA and the Government.

A previous ballot in October last year was rejected by two to one due to fears it would give managers too much control over consultants' work.

But today, Dr Paul Miller, chairman of the central consultants and specialists committee revealed that in the latest vote 60 per cent had approved the new deal.

Before the ballot, doctors' leaders had urged them to vote in favour of the new contract, believing it would improve the lives and working conditions for most consultants.

If doctors had voted against the deal for a second time it could have brought the prospect of industrial action.

Announcing the result, Dr Miller said: "Last October 66 per cent of consultants and 84 per cent of specialist registrars clearly rejected the consultant framework that was on offer at that time.

"Since then we've had a very difficult time, several months when the Government refused to discuss a way forward with us. Instead they sought locally to implement a contract that had been rejected nationally and they failed.

"Consultants at that time were concerned that this was a managerialist contract and there was too much power for NHS non-clinical managers to deploy consultants to meet political targets, not clinical priorities."

Dr Miller said improvements had now been made so that patients could be reassured that consultants put their clinical needs first.

In the English ballot doctors were asked: "Do you want to have the option to take up the new 2003 national contract negotiated between the BMA and Department of Health in England?"

Among the consultants there was a 69.6 per cent turnout with 12,636 (60.7 per cent) who voted "yes" and 8,178 (39.3 per cent) of consultants voted "no".

In the specialist registrars' vote there was a 37 per cent turnout with 1,711 (55.4 per cent) voting "yes" and 1,379 (44.6 per cent) voting "no".

Overall this amounted to a majority of 60.7 per cent.