The BMA has accused England’s secretary of state for well being and social care, Steve Barclay, of constant to mislead the general public about docs’ pensions and the independence of the pay evaluate course of in an try to discredit consultants who’re taking industrial motion this week.

As consultants started a 48 hour strike on 19 September,1 Barclay repeated the declare that consultants obtain an annual pension of £78 000 once they retire at 65, regardless of the BMA highlighting knowledge displaying that on common they obtain 40% lower than this.

Last month Barclay claimed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that when consultants retire at 65 they obtain a “tax-free pension of £73 000 a year.” The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was subsequently compelled to right the report as a result of consultants’ pension advantages aren’t tax free. But the division is now repeatedly citing an elevated annual pension determine of £78 000, and Barclay once more used this quantity on the Today programme on 19 September.

This is regardless of knowledge launched underneath the Freedom of Information Act from the …