Doctors to refuse extra shifts in pay dispute with trust

Queen Elizabeth Hospital

By Sarah Lowden

Doctors working for University Hospitals Birmingham have entered into a formal dispute with the trust after it announced plans to cut pay for extra-contractual hours and locum work.

The British Medical Association said it believes the plans would see doctors not being paid fairly to work evenings, weekends and to fill rota gaps.

It has advised its members not to take on extra work for less than its rate card figures.

In an email to staff, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) said it had improved staffing levels in the last 18 months, recruiting 11% more substantive staff, but it was still spending an “unaffordable and unsustainable amount of money” on agency and enhanced bank rates each month.

It said substantively employed colleagues are earning less doing shifts alongside bank and agency colleagues so it had decided that from Monday 11 November, “agency staff cover and premium enhanced bank rates will cease” and instead it would pay similar rates to a staff member working the same shift.