The British Medical Association conference in Manchester yesterday threatened to ballot for industrial action if the Government presses ahead with plans to reduce NHS pensions and increase the retirement age from 60 to 65.
Health professionals said the moves would increase staffing problems and sickness levels and would probably lead to doctors retiring earlier rather than later.
Dr Charles Saunders of the BMA Scottish consultants committee stressed that patient care would not suffer as any strike action would affect administrative work only.
He said that changing the pension scheme from final salary to average salary would disadvantage working mothers who take enforced career breaks.
“People feel very, very threatened that what they had planned for their retirement is being potentially interfered with, particularly because it is a government that is not prepared to listen to their concerns,” he added.
