Do NHS locums get paid too much?

HOW about if, in six months’ time, the NHS said ‘no more agency nurses or doctors’? It could lead to cancelled operations to start with, but agency people would then have to look for staff jobs. If we removed this expenditure, we could afford to pay decent wages to staff nurses and doctors. ELAINE DAVIES, ruislip, Middx.

WHILE i agree that payments to some locum doctors are high (Mail), is this unreasonable when compared with what some others are paid? The sum stated, which equates to an annual salary of £864k, is the maximum — most get less. Yet this is what some BBC bosses and many CEOs and council chief executives receive, and it pales into insignificance when compared with money earned by bankers, pop stars, actors and footballers. The government will recover around 40 per cent in tax of what locums are paid — this is not necessarily so of the others. Doctors save lives. There is no doubt who most deserves high pay. ROBERT J EVANS, sheldon, Birmingham.

THE higher figures are very unusual: perhaps 20 per cent goes to the agency and 40 per cent to the taxman. It makes doctors look greedy, which they aren’t. They get into huge debt and work hard at medical school for seven years. I’ve seen a doctor come out of hospital after fighting to save a teenager’s life and collapse, sobbing, then go in to face the relatives. And we are meant to resent them earning as much as an emergency plumber or mechanic? SIMON CAMPBELL, Glasgow.

THE only way to stop locums taking advantage of the NHS doctor shortage by demanding greedy pay is to attract more permanent doctors (Mail). it is estimated that about 10 per cent of NHS doctors are nationals of other EU countries. Could Brexit make recruitment issues worse? TAVIER FAIRBURN, Jesmond, newcastle upon tyne.