To terminate their protest, UK physicians accept a fresh salary offer

Senior National Health Service (NHS) physicians accepted the government’s salary offer on Friday, marking the end of a year-long strike, according to the head of the British Medical Association’s (BMA) Consultants Committee of Indian descent.

In an attempt to bring consultants’ compensation back to 2008 levels, Dr. Vishal Sharma said that the agreement marks “the end of the beginning” and emphasized how “imperative” it is that the review board use its independence to avoid further pay conflicts.

In a three-week poll arranged by the BMA physicians’ organization, around 83% of NHS consultants who participated voted in favor of accepting the offer on behalf of the profession. “In our fight to address our concerns about pay and how the supposedly independent pay review process was operating, consultants have taken unprecedented strike action over the last year,” Sharma said.