Warning of NHS staff crisis as anger grows over below inflation pay rise

From April 1, it will take the starting salary for consultants to just over £78,300, rising to around £105,500 for a consultant with at least 19 years experience.

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However, Dr Peter Bennie, the chair of the BMA in Scotland, said the rise fell short of what is needed.

Dr Bennie said: "The announcement that yet again the pay of doctors in Scotland will go up by just one per cent while the rate of inflation is at 2.3 per cent means that once again doctors pay will decline in real terms.

"Repeated years of real terms cuts to doctors' pay have taken a substantial toll on incomes and do nothing to address the significant recruitment and retention difficulties across all grades of doctor.

"At a time when doctors' workloads are increasing like never before, there will be widespread disappointment and anger at the decision to continue this approach."

The trade union is also unhappy over a continued freeze in consultant performance bonuses. The budget for distinction awards, which reward specialists with pensionable salary top-ups of £25,000, £50,000 or £75,000 a year, has been frozen since 2010 meaning that no new consultants have been selected for the award. Existing distinction award holders still receive the payments, however.

Consultants can also apply for "discretionary points", which boost their salary by £3,204 per point up to a maximum of £25,632 for holders of eight points.

The Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body (DDRB) recommended an increase the value of distinction awards and discretionary points, but this was rejected by the Scottish Government.

Simon Barker, chair of BMA Scotland's consultants’ committee, said: "It is with great disappointment that we learn today that the Scottish Government has decided to ignore the recommendation of its independent pay review body to recognise and value the hard work of NHS consultants for the second year running.

"The lack of discretionary point uplift and ongoing distinction award freeze give exactly the wrong message to a consultant workforce that has been delivering more and more, year on year, from an already inadequate budget. "

It comes amid increasing workforce vacancies, with seven per cent of consultant posts in Scotland unfilled and nearly half of these vacant for more than six months.

NHS spending on agency staff has also doubled in doubled in four years from £82 million to £175m amid staff shortages, with the number of nursing midwifery posts empty for more than three months up more than 33 per cent in a year.

Norman Provan, associate director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: “Since 2010, there has been a real-term fall in nursing pay of around 14 per cent. As a result of [this] announcement, the gap between nurses’ pay and the cost of living will grow ever wider. This means that their pay will fall even further behind and will pile the pressure on an already overstretched workforce.”

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Jon Skewes, director for policy at the Royal College of Midwives, added: "When almost every professional group in the NHS has a shortage of staff, as midwifery does, the Scottish Government need to intervene now to retain much-needed staff before it is too late."

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “NHS employees are the health service’s most valuable asset, and we value their contribution enormously.

“I am glad to confirm that all NHS Scotland staff will receive salary increases from April 1 in line with the recommendations from the independent Pay Review Bodies.

“I recognise that pay restraint has been difficult, however this must be seen in the context of the significant cuts we have seen to Scotland’s budget in recent years."