NHS doctors cashing in with £100,000 overtime
SOARING numbers of doctors are earning six-figure sums for overtime on top of their annual salaries, an investigation has found.
At least 126 received £100,000 or more last year for agreeing to work extra hours amid sweeping NHS cutbacks.
A total of 980 doctors were paid £50,000 or more for overtime. Average basic salaries are £84,000 a year. At the same time, hospitals are facing a growing staff crisis while waiting lists for surgery and outpatient clinics are growing ever longer.
Managers are increasingly asking staff doctors to undertake extra shifts to fill rota gaps or run additional clinics.
But due to a flawed contract drawn up 14 years ago under Labour, doctors are entitled to charge sky-high hourly rates for overtime work. Hospitals have no choice but to agree to such fees as there are few other medics willing to do the shifts.
Freedom of information responses from 75 of the 152 hospital trusts in England showed that doctors were paid £203million in overtime in 2016/7. As only half of all hospitals replied, the true overtime figure could top £400million. The data also showed that the number of doctors earning £100,000 or more in overtime rose from 86 in 2014/15 to 102 in 2015/16. It was 126 last year.
The figures include overtime, oncall bonuses as well as other additional payments made to doctors for work outside of their contracted hours.
MPs said the sums were ‘ inexcusable’ and blamed a ‘perfect storm’ of staffing shortages and relentless patient demand.
The payments are being made as the NHS is experiencing its worst financial crisis in a generation as it struggles to meet the needs of a rising and ageing population.
NHS England – the organisation in charge of the NHS – has already said thousands of prescription medicines including migraine pills would be rationed as they were no longer affordable.
Former Lib Dem health minister Norman Lamb, who obtained the latest figures, said: ‘It is simply inexcusable that over £200million is being spent like this when the NHS is under so much pressure.
‘The problem is being made worse by staffing shortages that mean many doctors are under pressure to work extra hours.
‘Hard-working NHS staff working overtime deserve extra money. But people will be rightly angry that some consultants are pocketing in excess of £100,000 in extra payments, while local services are being cut.’
Meg Hillier, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said doctors willing to work overtime could ‘name their price’. The Labour and Co-operative MP said many hospitals were so understaffed they struggled to find evening and weekend cover. ‘It’s not that doctors are greedy,’ she said. ‘On Saturday night, in a London A&E, for instance, you can probably name your price.’
Separate figures obtained by the Mail in February found that one doctor in Preston was paid £456,000 in overtime in 2015/16.
The majority of the doctors earning the highest overtime rates are consultants, who benefit from a lucrative contract negotiated under Labour in 2003.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has promised reforms but progress was delayed during the extended wrangle over the controversial junior doctors contract, which triggered strikes last year.
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘Consultants do a crucial job and should be properly rewarded for the extra work they do – but these figures highlight why we are working with the British Medical Association to reform the unique evening and weekend opt-out clause in the existing consultant contract.’
Dr Robert Harwood, of the British Medical Association, said: ‘Trusts paying the higher individual figures should consider why such large numbers are being paid to a few people and whether that money could be better spent on hiring more staff, for example.’