Summary of the speech from the Chairman of the Armed Forces Committee, Dr John Ferguson
Wednesday 2 July 2003
The Chairman of the Armed Forces Committee, Dr John Ferguson, began by referring to the recent conflict in Iraq which had clearly shown the chronic undermanning in the Defence Medical Services. There still remained acute shortages in specialties such as anaesthetics, general surgery as well as accident and emergency and in addition to this, volunteer reserves were 50% understrength. The lack of resources to reinforce or rotate individuals placed greater stress on the DMS and had a detrimental effect on the NHS.
Dr Ferguson stressed the important role of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body which had two main areas of reference for doctors in the DMS which were; broadly comparable pay with NHS doctors and to recruit, retain and motivate suitable qualified staff. Last year, in response to the shortfall in the DMS, the MOD had established a Medical Manning and Retention Review (MMRR) which had made many recommendations on both pay and non-pay matters and which the BMA had actively participated in. As a short term measure, MMRR had proposed new ‘Shadow Rates’ that more accurately reflected the earnings available to civilian doctors and which were accepted by the Armed Forces Pay Review Body (AFPRB) and the Government in November 2002.
Due to the continuing negotiations on the consultant and GP contracts it was agreed by the AFPRB that an interim award would be made to doctors in the DMS. Dr Ferguson reported that the Armed Forces Committee had submitted evidence for a pay award of 10% but that the Ministry of Defence at the last moment had changed its evidence for an award from 6% to 2.9%. The outcome was that the AFPRB had offered an interim award of 3.2% with a definite commitment to take further evidence, including an oral evidence session on 9 July, for a definitive award before the summer recess.
Dr Ferguson informed Conference that the Ministry of Defence had been due to submit a first draft on 22 April but that this had not been seen until 11 June. On Monday (30 June) afternoon he had been told by the AFPRB that the scheduled oral evidence session on 9 July had been postponed and that the MOD and the AFPRB had agreed that this should now take place on 24 September – a 12 week delay. This delay had been due to the fact that the MOD’s evidence had not yet been sent to the Department of Health, the Treasury and the Cabinet Office for consultation.
In response to this development, John Ferguson said that he had written to the Chairman of the AFPRB, Baroness Dean, to ‘raise my concerns about the effects on the future of the Defence Medical Services’. John Ferguson thanked Conference and the Chairman of Council for their support and concluded by stating that standing orders would be suspended to allow an Emergency Motion to be tabled censuring the MOD for this delay.
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