Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.
A BBC News investigation has found that senior doctors in the NHS are taking advantage of pressure to cut waiting lists by charging the service premium rates for overtime, in some cases earning over £200,000 annually through extra work. NHS England has responded by stating that the service has to offer its staff competitive rates so as to keep them from the private sector. The British Medical Association has pointed out that the practice could be reduced if it was not for staffing shortages.
Reductions in waiting lists are a key part of the government’s strategy for the NHS, with £25bn being invested this year and next to increase the number of appointments and operations: fewer waiting lists were a key election promise from the Labour party. However, the findings raise questions over how value-for-money in the NHS can be ensured in the face of increasing overtime costs.
The increasing costs are breeding resentment among other NHS staff who are often required to work overtime for little extra remuneration. Moreover, consultants’ contracts, which are more than 20 years old, allow for them to opt out of weekend shifts and to charge hospitals whatever they are willing to pay them for overtime.
Data from Freedom of Information Requests and NHS England revealed that costs for consultants working beyond their contracted hours has nearly doubled over the past ten years to a total overtime bill of nearly £1bn in 2023-24. Six in 10 consultants work beyond contracted hours, earning an average of over £27,000 p.a., with at least 50% of trusts now paying some consultants more than £100,000 in overtime. These include Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which paid four medicine specialism consultants more than £100,000, with one earning over £208,000 for 128 days’ work
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.