NHS consultants incomes £200,000 in additional time to sort out backlog

Senior docs are charging the NHS premium charges for additional time, as stress to chop ready lists is permitting some to make greater than £200,000 a 12 months from further work, a BBC Information investigation has discovered.

That’s practically double the common primary pay for a full-time guide in England.

Most of the consultants incomes probably the most are regarded as part-time, permitting them to work vital quantities of additional time for charges exceeding £200 an hour – greater than 4 occasions regular pay.

NHS England stated hospitals needed to provide charges that have been aggressive with the non-public sector.

However the British Medical Affiliation (BMA), the docs’ union, identified the NHS wouldn’t must rely a lot on additional time have been it not for staffing shortages.

And hospitals stated masking for strike days and illness had additionally been elements.

The findings come as the federal government invests extra money within the NHS, to extend the variety of appointments and operations it could possibly provide – a key election promise made by Labour.

As a part of the Price range, the chancellor stated the NHS would obtain an additional £25bn this 12 months and subsequent – with decreasing waits a precedence.

A key a part of Labour’s plan is for workers to work evenings and weekends, to chop the backlog.

However the BBC Information investigation raises considerations about whether or not this method can ship worth for cash.

One senior NHS supply stated: “Consultants maintain all of the playing cards – they know we can not make progress on the backlog with out them.”

The supply stated consultants have been in a “fairly distinctive place in comparison with different workers” as a result of their contracts meant they may choose out of weekend work after which cost no matter their hospital was keen to pay for additional time.

They stated it was not within the BMA’s pursuits to renegotiate these “outdated” contracts, greater than 20 years previous.

“What worries me is that the additional time prices are going to maintain growing with the necessity to sort out the backlog and this may breed resentment amongst different NHS workers who typically work additional time for little extra,” the supply stated.

They added that the NHS wanted to rent extra consultants, ask different workers to tackle a few of their work and spend money on applied sciences akin to synthetic intelligence to lighten the load.

BBC Information used Freedom of Data requests to hospital trusts and information provided by NHS England to disclose what consultants working past their contracted hours was costing the NHS:

• The general additional time invoice hit virtually £1bn in 2023-24, up from £512m 10 years in the past, albeit a few of that rise is said to extra consultants being employed
• Six in 10 consultants work past their contracted hours, with common additional pay topping £27,000 a 12 months
• A minimum of half of the 41 hospital trusts that responded to BBC Information at the moment are paying a few of their consultants greater than £100,000 in additional time

In 2023-24, Bradford Instructing Hospitals NHS Basis Belief paid 4 consultants from its medication speciality greater than £100,000 in additional time funds.

One earned simply above £208,000 in additional time for 128 days work.

And through these shifts, their pay averaged £188 an hour.

The belief stated “in frequent with most NHS trusts”, it needed to depend on additional time funds to “handle ready lists and to cowl rota gaps and vacancies” and masking strikes had positioned it beneath added pressure.

Medway NHS Basis Belief confirmed it had paid three radiologists, who diagnose and deal with sufferers utilizing scans and exams, greater than £150,000 in additional time – one in all whom had earned above £200,000.

It stated shortages on this area meant it needed to pay premium charges, generally on a scan-by-scan foundation.

NHS Frimley Well being Basis Belief paid two consultants in its endoscopy division, which supplies inside examinations, greater than £180,000 every in additional time, to sort out the backlog in therapy.

The belief stated: “We’re targeted on making certain we all the time present worth for cash – and something we spend is in proportion with the profit it brings to our sufferers.”

NHS Humber Well being Partnership, which runs 5 hospitals, paid three consultants between £185,000 and £240,000 in additional time.

Chief medical officer Kate Wooden stated the additional time spending had helped fund additional operations at weekends, to cut back ready lists.

“We assess the prices of those shifts towards the dangers of not having cowl,” she stated.

“We have now put affected person security first as that’s our key focus.

“This isn’t one thing that’s distinctive to us.”

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Belief paid three consultants greater than £100,000 in additional time, together with one who earned simply above £198,000.

Managing director Stephen Collman stated the belief was making an attempt to cut back “premium funds” the place doable however the necessity to cowl illness absence and vacant posts meant to maintain companies “operating safely and successfully” it had no choice.

Some hospitals stated additional time charges had been pushed up over the previous 12 months by the significantly excessive charges the BMA had informed its consultants to ask for to supply strike cowl.

“It created a brand new expectation of what they need to get,” one official stated.

However BMA guide co-leaders Dr Helen Neary and Dr Shanu Datta stated: “Sadly, a declining workforce in disaster and spiralling affected person demand – which has led to sky excessive ready lists – signifies that additional hours of labor are important to get the job achieved.”

They identified a lot of the additional time was achieved throughout unsocial hours, including these have been “highly-trained and skilled professionals” so it was cheap for them to worth their time “at acceptable charges”.

Danny Mortimer, of NHS Employers, which represents hospitals on employment points, stated: “In mild of the tough monetary place of the NHS, well being leaders try to bear down on extra-contractual premium pay charges.”

However there have been no simple options as consultants performed a “vital function” in tackling ready lists.

And an NHS England official identified the usage of companies, which may very well be much more costly, was falling.