NHS consultants in Scotland offered 10.5% pay rise

It has already committed £448m to fund a 5.5% increase for other healthcare staff including nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists.

Resident doctors are still to complete their negotiations over pay for this year.

The BMA described the pay offer as a positive first step towards making the Scottish NHS a competitive place for consultants to work.

Dr Alan Robertson, chairman of the BMA’s Scottish consultant committee, said its members had suffered “considerable pay erosion” in recent years due to repeated pay freezes and high inflation.

He added that when deals in the rest of the UK were taken into consideration, “it was increasingly clear that consultants in Scotland were falling seriously behind”.

Dr Robertson said: “At the very least this is an offer which returns consultant pay in Scotland to being comparable with that across the UK – and at many stages of a consultant’s career it will be better than in England.

“There is still much work to be done given the many years that our pay has been eroded and the impact of higher taxation in Scotland.

“However, the offer is one we believe moves consultant pay in Scotland in the right direction and can be built upon.”