NHS backs down on locum doctors’ tax rule

NHS watchdogs have backed down in a row with locum doctors, performing a U-turn over new tax rules.

Last month the health service regulator accused agency medics of an “organised campaign” to hold the NHS to ransom over tax changes.

Under new rules NHS trusts were ordered to subtract agency workers’ tax and national insurance from pay packets at source. Some doctors said the changes could mean a drop in income of up to 50 per cent. But others said earnings will only be reduced if workers were already paying too little tax.

NHS managers said agency doctors, knowing hospitals would struggle without them, were threatening to withdraw from shifts at late notice, unless rates of pay were increased. But the regulator has now issued new guidance, reversing previous advice, telling trusts to examine each case on an individual basis.

The changes follow a legal threat by the Locum Doctors Union and the Healthcare Professionals Union, which said the changes would have seen temporary doctors, nurses and allied healthcare workers lose from 30 to 50 per cent of their income.