Pension reforms for retirees returning to health service

the cap last year, while the British Medical Association (BMA) estimates that 10 per cent of the country’s consultant and GP workforce will retire in the next 18 months if action is not taken to avoid the “pension trap”.

Pensions would also be reformed for retirees returning to the health service. Ms Truss is understood to be considering scrapping a rule that bans returning staff from earning more from their pension and pay combined than they would earn working full time.

A source said last night: “The Covid pandemic put unprecedented strain on our NHS, and the resulting backlog is seeing people struggling to get appointments and treatments. We must act to tackle it, and we will.

“We will make it easier for doctors and nurses who have recently left or are planning to leave the NHS but want to return or stay to do so.”

The latest figures show a record 6.73 million people are now waiting for NHS treatment, compared with 4.2 million before the pandemic.

The number of patients waiting more than a year for treatment has risen to 355,000 – seven times the same figure in June 2020. Dr Brian Guttridge, chairman of the BMA’s retired members committee, said: “It is absolutely within

the gift of the next prime minister to stem the exodus of senior, highly experienced doctors from the NHS.

“We have long called for the end of punitive pension taxation rules that mean for far too many it simply doesn’t pay to stay. Putting this right would be an important step forward.” Dr Guttridge called for “decent working conditions and flexibility” for doctors returning to work and warned that staff rejoining the NHS during the pandemic were faced with “excessive hoops through which many had to jump”.

In an interview last night, Ms Truss also said she would reform IR35 rules to make the UK’s tax regime more generous for the self-employed.

“The fact is, if you’re self-employed, you don’t get the same benefits as being in a big company,” she told The Sun on Sunday.

“You don’t get paid holidays, you didn’t get those benefits. So the tax system should reflect that more.”