Details of the deal are still emerging, but I understand that rather than junior doctors working the 11 Saturdays a year that the government wanted them to, they will now work 6 weekends a year. The marginal cost for a hospital of employing a junior doctor will fall by roughly a third if this deal goes through.
The government has given some ground elsewhere. Doctors returning from maternity leave will be entitled to catch up on the skills training that they have missed out on while away and once they have done so, they will be entitled to a skills based pay rise as if they hadn’t taken leave.
Overall, though, Jeremy Hunt has got what he needed: a deal that begins to make a seven day NHS financially possible.
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