Doctors' pay deal 'was so easy it was a laugh,' says Dr Simon Fradd, formerly a member of the GPs committee of the British Medical Association.

Doctors' pay deal 'was so easy it was a laugh' says Dr Simon Fradd.

Extract:

"His comments come as controversy continued over GPs' pay. Figures show that an average GP is now earning £102,000 per annum, a 30 per cent increase in a year.

Dr Simon Fradd said that when it was proposed that for not working "out of hours" at night or at weekends they would only forfeit six per cent of their pay, the GP negotiators were astonished. They had expected it to cost them much more.

Dr Fradd, who is not now a member of the GPs committee of the British Medical Association, told the BBC Radio 4 programme The Investigation, to be broadcast today, that doctors had never believed the Government would allow them to opt out of out-of-hours care.
So they were more surprised that the team, acting on behalf of the Government, was only asking for a small cut, he said.

"We got rid of it for effectively six per cent of the value of the contract. It was just stunning. Nobody in my position had ever believed we could pull it off but to get it for six per cent was a bit of a laugh," he said. "