Rishi Sunak said calls for higher pay for doctors have to be balanced against priorities such as ensuring the long-term future of the NHS.
He ruled out taking the “easy course” of offering salary bumps if it “makes the situation” worse when it comes to dealing with stubbornly high inflation.
The Prime Minister faced questions about pay disputes with junior doctors and more senior consultants as the Government published its plan for a massive shake-up in how the NHS recruits and retains staff, with the promise of thousands more workers.
Mr Sunak, who has refused to rule out ignoring the advice of independent public sector pay bodies on wage rises, said he wants to “reward people fairly” – but not at the cost of fuelling inflation.
The Conservative Party leader said he and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, a former health secretary, had included the NHS workforce plan in their financial planning for a “long time” and argued his administration is prioritising it so it can do the “difficult things that no other government has done before”.
Investing in medical school places while refusing to reverse years of pay erosion for doctors and fixing the broken pay review system is completely illogical and uneconomical— Dr Latifa Patel, British Medical Association
But the British Medical Association (BMA) said it is “illogical” to work on training more doctors when there are complaints from current frontline medics about wages.
Junior doctors are due to strike for five days next month as their wrangle over pay and conditions continues, with consultants also voting for industrial action in July.
Dr Latifa Patel, the BMA’s workforce lead, said: “Investing in medical school places while refusing to reverse years of pay erosion for doctors and fixing the broken pay review system is completely illogical and uneconomical.”
The Prime Minister, speaking at a press briefing in Downing Street on Friday, said the Government has to get the balance right between paying public servants well and not worsening the state of the economy.
He said: “Would everyone like to be paid more? Of course they would be.
“But I think everyone also recognises the economic context that we’re in.
“Our job in Government is to balance all those things, make sure that we reward people fairly and well for the incredible work they are doing, particularly our NHS workers.
“But it is also to make sure that we are doing things that are good for them and the rest of the country in the long-term, and that means bringing down inflation.
“Because it won’t help anybody if we just take the easy course and ultimately make the situation worse and last longer.”
He said it is “important” to “balance” demands on public spending to ensure there is money available to spend on projects like the health workforce plan, which is backed by £2.4 billion of Government investment.
Mr Sunak admitted industrial action taken by nurses and doctors in recent months has made it “harder” to achieve his aim of cutting NHS waiting lists, but said long waits are being eliminated “steadily but surely”.
The Prime Minister has set halving inflation as his top priority for the country, with cutting waiting lists another of his five pledges ahead of a likely general election next year.
The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation, a measure of how much prices are rising by, remained at 8.7% in May, despite hopes of a fall.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme, Mr Hunt said cutting inflation remains the “way we will deal with” the cost-of-living pressures.
He said: “What is the root cause of people’s frustration on pay? It is the fact there is high inflation.
“It is eroding people’s real disposable income and it is very frustrating. And so we want to do everything we can to pay people fairly, as long as we don’t take measures that entrench high inflation.”
Speaking earlier on Friday, Health Secretary Steve Barclay reiterated that he does not consider the junior doctors’ opening negotiating stance on pay to be reasonable.
He told Sky News: “The demand from the junior doctors for a pay rise of 35%, I think that many will recognise that is not something that is fair and reasonable.
“There has got to be movement on both sides. We have shown that can be done through our negotiations with the paramedics, the nurses, the porters, the cleaners, the 1.3 million, the biggest staff group within the NHS where a deal has been reached by the Government.
“We’re moving forward there and we now need to see a similar approach from the doctors.”
The BMA said the 35% figure is not a precondition for junior doctors to hold talks but rather a reflection of pay erosion experienced since 2008.
The union said it would welcome a meeting with the Health Secretary to discuss the current stalemate.
