NHS On Overtime

There are reports of astonishing incomes being paid to consultants working overtime to try and deal with waiting lists and cover for staff shortages. First it is right to point out that consultants are entitled to be paid for working longer hours and if their efforts reduce waiting times they are to be welcomed. Second, medicine is not a profession which should be associated with getting rich and it cannot be right to pay out such sums as have been reported to individual doctors. During the putting together of the May government it was for a time reported the Jeremy Hunt had been given the push, but then he stayed on. This blog thinks that was a mistake.

The present fragmented nature of the NHS structure with quasi independent Trusts, Commissioning Boards and Foundations is an addict’s binge on organisational engineering for its own sake. Enveloped in a further twenty regulatory quangos it no longer resembles a coherent or rational publicly funded service. It is paid for by taxpayers, it is under funded, its is full of Peters being robbed to pay Pauls and it should be directly controlled by the Ministry of Health with a minimum of management and a maximum of medicine. The fact that somebody is writing cheques so that at least one consultant has been paid an eye popping £375000 in overtime pay, is clear evidence calling for change at the top.

Leave a Reply