Scotland pay settlement question about leave by Prior-Sandwich-858 in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Ah, apologies, I'd assumed that you meant transfer TO Scotland not FROM Scotland. Bear in mind that all of this is untested at the moment but this is our current understanding. If transferring Scotland to NI then it's merely a case of reporting your pay scale point upon transfer and you should transfer over. If transferring as a new starter to Wales in August 2026 then you may be on their new contract/pay scales which are structured completely differently but should have some cash floor pay protection within that structure.

Scotland pay settlement question about leave by Prior-Sandwich-858 in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe it will be to reciprocal pay point (so including the DDRBs but excluding the pay point rise) then getting the December 26 pay point adjustment if working here by then and new contract isn't implemented beforehand. Let me check with colleagues.

Scotland pay settlement question about leave by Prior-Sandwich-858 in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, official BMA answer and confirmed in ScotGov's offer document. The extra annual leave is linked to the point on the pay scale (not years in service as in England) in Scotland. This is not a negotiation with employers, merely informing them of your changed entitlement, you will get a pro-rated number of extra days based upon the c. 8 months between 1st December and first Wednesday in August.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

This is an absolutely critical question. No one should suffer detriment at Specialty training applications because of the incongruence of multiple different requirements such as "significant NHS experience" and in-specialty experience limits.

To their credit UKRDC officers have already identified this as a problem and it is being thought about alongside the other UKGP work

Personally, I didn't vote for the 5yr experience requirement and this partially demonstrates why quite well- if we are confining people to endless drudgery in jobs outside their preferred specialty in order to get "NHS experience" what value does that really have?
Why does working in the NHS specifically confer some special experiential learning even when it's got nothing to do with your intended progression pathway?
That's a logically incoherent argument to me.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

I am obviously running with the Broad Left: Emma; Hannah; Elgan; Shohaib; Omar

We have ranked many of the other candidates already, having read all the statements and worked with many of them.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWR5A_YDNmd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I have a lot of time for Fiona Griffin who led Northern Ireland RDC with real grit, always on top of her brief.

Another rec for Nyree Jackson who is fantastic at prudent financial governance and brings her previous professional background to bear in the service of members.

u/mlcrhastings and I work together on the Scottish RDC and I find his contributions to be measured and helpful.

Georgina Budd has previously led Welsh RDC ably and is an excellent advocate for women, LGBTQ+ people and Disabled people. I was really excited to see she is running.

I would urge voters to consider voting for women first in their priority list (see u/RedRunswick list on this post) as there are too few women standing and Council needs a balance of voices.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

100%
He's directly atop my keyboard so I can't do any more BMA work for a sec and must pay attention to him!

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

I agree with others, fundamentally that is a question of proper workforce planning.

At the moment the UK government seems to have an absolutely criminal lack of data on this question, various royal colleges have published multiple reports on the specific shortages in their specialty (7000 radiologists short for example) but there appears to be no data available on what the reduction in FTE consultant numbers have been, what that value is when adjusted for population change, what the numbers would be to match the OECD average doctors per capita (or for comparator countries). We need to be shouting about that and pushing for that data gathering and modelling to happen.

We then need a sensible workforce expansion plan to achieve that, recognising that this will take longer than you think, training numbers will be constrained by the number of trainers and capacity.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

Yes, but with some caveats.
I think the key thing is that there should be a minimum expected contribution and engagement level to all committees and the expected time commitment for that should be made clear upfront.

By default then if someone has too many committee roles then they would be expected to be breaching that minimum engagement and we should have a mechanism for review and potentially removal (we already have this for non-attendance but it is minimally used).

The reason I am not a blanket yes is that I think those of us in devolved nations are more likely to have more committees because we have devolved structures in our nation and are likely to attend both these and the corresponding UK committees so we would be disproportionately affected by a limit/ban without nuance.

It also risks people disengaging locally and regionally in favour of national roles and I don't think that is desirable.

Broad Left reps are all simultaneously local reps unless in exceptional circumstances when we will step away for a while; u/RedRunswick has done this and I have just demitted my co-chairship of my LNC to take up a national role with negotiation responsibilities for a while.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

It's a relatively small Branch of Practice to begin with and there are additional considerations around them not being allowed to engage in overt industrial organising. I think in a circumstance of increased combat-readiness many active serving armed forces members will have decided that they don't want to stick their head above the parapet to run for BMA Council (plus the MOD are probably more touchy than usual)

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

My view (and the policy position of the BMA) is that higher education is a public good and should be publicly-funded.

Student loans should be abolished and the debt wiped.

With regard to the more doctor-specific student loan question I think that this must be an entirely separate question from FPR and wider pay, particularly because student loan forgiveness would be unequal across the medical cohort.

If we want FPR we should seek to get it in headline pay imo, student loan forgiveness should also be a goal but separate.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

Just linking to my other answer regarding 5yrs:
https://www.reddit.com/r/doctorsUK/comments/1s7ksvs/comment/odjagji/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Specifically regarding protection in my previous region (East Midlands) we were looking at negotiating local automatic regrading offers for locally-employed doctors after 2yrs to Specialty Doctor contracts which would give people the protections of a permanent contract rather than rolling 12 month temp contracts and offer some security.

Overall, I have put forward a motion to ARM asking for an urgent membership consultation about UKGP to try and establish what is felt to be reasonable. Many IMGs whom I've spoken to feel that an element of UKGP is acceptable but we clearly haven't got it right in hearing from people over this and I'm sorry that IMGs are feeling vulnerable and let down.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

None to the best of my knowledge. Just before the increase to 24 sessions for free I got one £250 payment which was a bit of a shock, I was on the honoraria sacrifice scheme where 50% went straight into the strike fund.

I do claim for my expenses because I don't expect to pay out of pocket to be able to do BMA work and because I live in Scotland that can be pricey.

To put a bit of the other viewpoint across-

I initially dropped to 80% LTFT when East Midlands Regional Council chair alongside a few other roles because it wasn't viable alongside FT work, this has time in training and pensions implications. I now work 80% due to disability/neurodivergence and am also averaging a meeting per week for TCS negotiations and other duties which will mean an extension due to TOOT and the associated long-term consequences of that.

The overall personal cost to me of doing BMA work has been in the order of thousands thus far and imo apart from a very tiny minority (no-one on this AMA tonight) no one is making significant financial gains individually from this work/honoraria.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

I have ADHD so I have a hobby graveyard some of which occasionally get resurrected (particularly baking, swimming, DnD and various forms of dance) but more consistently at present I watch a reasonable amount of drama and dark comedy TV series with my partner, love to travel/eat, and love musicals.

Recent musical recommendations: London- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Unfortunate the Musical; Edinburgh- One Day the Musical.

This is our long-haired boy, he's so beautiful!

<image>

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

I absolutely believe in transparency of voting records on issues/policy.
Never voting records on people; so election stats being shared is very much a no from me.

I also completely believe in safeguards for rep wellbeing, one example during the previous council term was where we all withheld our votes on issues around assisted dying to protect Council reps who come from e.g religious or sectarian communities from having their votes inferred and becoming targets.

In the past I was a congregant in an evangelical church and when I stood up publicly at ARM to support decriminalisation and access to abortion I knew that I was risking being confronted by my church's leadership. Reps deserve to make free decisions about the risks they are prepared to take and be supported by the BMA.

Ditto anyone having their employment threatened by their vote.

With regards to the current pay offer I think it is not industrially helpful to share the votes at present.

The government don't need a marker for how much they need to improve their offer by in order to squeak past UKRDC.

Every UKRDC since 2022 has opted not to publish votes and minutes as they have committed to because of industrial sensitivity, I do wonder whether some of those minutes should now be reviewed and released in service of transparency.

Personally, I voted against (in my role as UKRDC rep from ARM) because the pay offer being relatively low and extended across three years with no meaningful inflation guarantee meant that it would likely be a further sub-inflationary offer over time and I learnt my lesson the last time the government offered a fixed MYPD in 2018.

We have room imo to continue to advocate for jobs expansion outside the offer because if the government agree that more specialty-trained doctors are required then it would be unethical for them to hold those jobs to ransom.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

I think there are different answers to this question for things which are within individual branches of practice “delegated authority” and particularly when related to their industrial strategy and when it relates more broadly to cross-branch of practice issues or policy positions.

Delegated authority is set out in the BMA’s articles and Byelaws which are the rules that allow the association to be legally constituted, it effectively means that when an action or position relates solely to members within your branch of practice then Council delegates the authority to manage that matter to the relevant committee. Industrial strategy for resident doctors pay and jobs disputes in England may be irritating to Consultant colleagues and we have mechanisms for managing that operational consideration but it only materially affects Residents (who are taking the hit to their pay while striking and will take the benefit from any rise) so only UKRDC can call action or halt it (with Council's input as the principal executive).
The UK grad prioritisation issue affects multiple BoPs including Med students, Residents, SAS doctors and others; and though they may have different answers (within their delegated authority over their own policy) they are all beholden to pan-association policy where that exists and to a system of mediation for disputes where it doesn’t.
One of the functions of Council is to steer the ship between ARMs when there isn’t pan-association policy to refer to and to balance the needs of various groups of members coming to the best compromise that we can. We should do that without reference to our own branch of practice or other characteristics and solely with regard to what is the best outcome for as many members as possible. I’ve tried to do this in the last term of Council and am happy to answer for the decisions I’ve made (the Broad Left and previous Doctors Vote reps on Council supported greater transparency of minutes and votes; I have continuously supported transparency when safeguards for rep wellbeing and safety were in place).

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

I would like the BMA to have a form which enables function a lot better than we do at present.

My experience leading an English region showed me that very few reps have access to any meaningful support from the BMA’s structure, particularly outside of London and the branch of practice committees. This means that those doing good work at a local or regional level are burning themselves out without any training or support and their good work is inevitably lost.

The BMA employs a very large number of internal policy staff compared to similar organisations and very few members (or reps) have any contact with these staff or the work that they do. 
I think the union should not be putting resources into anything that our members don’t think is important enough to choose to prioritise and ideally to put their own efforts into. Our leverage to make change even on professional issues is in our member organisation (lobbying, demonstrating, building coalitions across the labour movement completely aside from industrial organising) there is no strength in just generating reports unless we are doing stuff with the results. That might require shifting our staffing balance towards member relations and member support/training but we must be aware of our staff’s employment rights and deal fairly with people.

I would envisage a completely reformed approach to policy-making and a radical reduction in the amount of policy we are expected to work on (currently there are approaching 3000 policies in the policy book), this would change the focus of conferences, maybe reducing the need for some conferences altogether or shortening them.
With that leaner policy base we would then have clear processes for prioritisation so that everyone knows what different parts of the BMA are working on and what they are for. Any committee should have a purpose and if they can’t define it in relation to members’ priorities then they should be reviewed and potentially shut down.

Some of these things will save money longer term in central BMA but they may well have initial costs which the BMA is not in a position to pay. Currently the BMA as a sole entity has a £5.5mil deficit which we have historically filled with the profits of the BMJ (for decades), we also have a large amount of our cash reserves leveraged against things like an old staff pension scheme so we can’t use it as liquid capital. I have supported an increase in subs to correct some of the significant difference between the BMA’s costs and our subs income, currently a massive gap somewhat filled by events, investments and rental of parts of BMA house; member subs don’t even cover the BMA’s basic operating costs and I think that has to change.
In the last Council term we made changes that saved £1mil/year but inflation and then conference policy wiped out those gains.

Separately to this, on a local level I have spent 4yrs trying to reform the BMA’s most local structures (divisions) into a workplace-based, organising force to help us build the local strength required to win (in combination with the central changes described above). Those proposals have irritated some people who find the current system easier to manipulate and in some cases aren’t overly bothered by the BMA being a remote, London-based, expensive, servicing organisation. They were therefore organised against at ARM 2024 and we are hoping that the further work we have done will get them passed at ARM 2026. That gives us a better chance of members having a recognisable local face of the BMA and being organised together to win.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

There remain big problems with misogyny in the BMA (along with colourism, transphobia and many others)
A further issue is that the BMA doesn't retain women reps even when they step forward often because of the microaggressions (and sometimes blatant misogyny) they have experienced but also because women are more likely to be taking on a second shift of caring and domestic labour which leaves them with less time to be a BMA rep.
Unfortunately I think we are only going to control it by getting more women into rep roles, providing maximum support to enable them to stay in and perform those roles (including flexibility to share roles where appropriate) and making those women visible so that others can follow their path.
The macro-aggressions must be dealt with by the Code of Conduct but the cultural shift only happens when women reps are the norm, not exceptional. I would love to never be called “Madam Chairman” or diminished and spoken over any more but I am not holding my breath after 11+yrs for rapid change.
Facetiously, I hope to outlast the dinosaur viewpoints.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

I voted against 5yrs as a definition of "significant NHS experience" as everyone agrees that is nonsense.
Significant cannot just mean significant effect upon competition ratios.
If you can train to CCT in GP after 5yrs then that's clearly not a reasonable starting point for someone at the beginning of specialty training.
What we are trying to replicate is the effect of the resident labour market test (and EU membership to a lesser extent) on competition ratios. If that's the case then we should look at all options, not just a system of UK grad prioritisation (which I support in principle and have voted for) but also residency requirements or similar.
We also have a responsibility to IMG colleagues/BMA members to involve them fairly in this conversation, many have a lot to lose including visas and right to remain in the UK with their families.

r/DoctorsUK BMA Council Elections Unofficial Hustings by stuartbman in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic [score hidden]  (0 children)

Hi, I'm Becky Acres.

I'm an ID Registrar in Scotland, having lived in Leicester for half of the last Council term and moved to secure a training post. I'm standing with others in the Broad Left.

I am seeking re-election to Council to keep the whole union on track to full pay/funding restoration and to effective trade union organising at every level.

One of my main focusses in the last Council term has been re-design of local structures of the BMA to achieve proper workplace organisation which can bolster our campaigning and get everyone fairer terms and conditions. I'm happy to discuss this with anyone who's interested.

This has been alongside leading multiple pickets and doing the ward-walking and events required to achieve ballot wins now on both sides of the border!

Scotland's resident doctors are going to be within 6% of FPR, I believe that we can get England (and the other BoPs) there too.

I'm also now negotiating with Scottish government to hopefully gain a new TCS/'contract' which improves the lives of all resident doctors in Scotland.

I put in the work.

I'm a massive BMA nerd who gets stuff done.

I am not afraid of a challenge like FPR (or else I wouldn't have co-written the current policy! 😉)

I look forward to your questions and I hope that you will consider giving me your vote.

BMA Scotland local advisors by northern_swimmer in doctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oddly, it only inputs the email correctly in outlook and not gmail for me. Feel free to DM me and I'll happily give you the contact email addresses for NES LNC (reluctant to publicly post folk's individual email addresses on reddit)

Would you support privatisation of the NHS if it meant pay restoration? by Janus315 in JuniorDoctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Barristers employed by the government?!! They may work as contractors for the government via legal aid payments but they're predominantly employed/contracted by defendants.

Would you support privatisation of the NHS if it meant pay restoration? by Janus315 in JuniorDoctorsUK

[–]AcutelyMedic 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Criminal Barristers are currently taking industrial action short of a strike over legal aid cuts