So, it’s official. Consultants will get no pay rise this year, along with many senior public sector roles. MPs, however, will get a 1.5% uplift. Enough said.
Tags: Pay
An open blog enabling commentators from across secondary care to share their opinions. To contribute email editorial@hospitaldr.co.uk
Pay deal: MPs 1.5, Consultants nil
By Mike Broad - 10th March 2010 4:08 pm
MPs pay will now go up to £66K. This is twice the national average pay and most people could justifiably criticize this. Hospital Consultants however, on up to £100400, are hardly in a position to moan. How many could afford to become an MP, and thereby take a 30% pay cut.
A 22 year old MP could be parachuted into a safe seat and start earning £66k a year with no degree, further exams, night duties, CPD, appraisals or revalidation unlike Consultants who will be 35+ at a starting salary of £65k….
Both are also Public servants but Consultants will most certainly not be able to have any of the expenses MPs had (We have to buy our own duck houses and Kit Kats..) and our SPAs, frozen pay and final pensions are being threatened unlike the gold plated ones of MPs
Enough said…No justice in this World
Yes, but MPs are free to take on (often lucrative) extra jobs without penalty…..and then of course there are the expenses which mitigate their cost of living.
If I want to do private work in my free time I have to offer extra work to the NHS first….I dont see many MPs offering to do anything extra before they take up these directorships and advisory posts.
What irritates me is the justification that consultants must show leadership. It’s got nothing to do with leadership, the government just knows it can get away with it. I don’t like being patronised…
Politicians, Bank managers and hopital managers who are already overpaid and ruining the country get bonuses and pay rise!!
Hard working consultants who are saving lives are not valued, that is INJUSTICE.
I think, we consultant are too good but not united, we shoud also go on strike and see if all these overpaid managers and politician can do our work( day, night and weekends)
Once again this is preying on the easy target. I would think the MP’s should be the first examples of leadership. It’s almost like the Bankers again. Government hits at the groups who are least likely to put up a fight. Shame on you Gordon Brown!!
As a NHS Consultant I do not think a pay freeze is a huge worry if the monies saved make a difference in the long term.I am pleased to hear that there is not a cut this time around.Senior Doctors in Ireland have taken a significant cut to their salaries and have no doubt we will be hit also.There will not be much sympathy for moaning consultants so let’s be thankful for at least having jobs in a climate where those who are not as well paid as us are suffering unemployment.
Bellerophon makes a good point.
Why are we all so dim? All consultants should stand for parliament (there is an election looming); they could then claim the hospital as their ’second home’ (I’m sure most spouses would verify that!); they would only need to turn up in Westminster when they felt like it; they would not need to know what they were voting on (the Whips - any of them - would give ‘advice’); they, and their ‘partners’, could have first class travel; and I believe the quisine and the ‘cellar’ are both good in the ‘Palace’ (of Westminster)! Furthermore, it would provide a couple more ‘letters’ to put after one’s name - which I am sure must count towards one’s CPD and, so, could go towards a CEA - which would be a further bnice little addition to one’s income! And, if any actually bothered to go into the chamber, it could not fail to ‘raise the standards’ of analysis and debate! Now, surely this is be a ‘new initiative’ that would be worth following - shall we set a ‘target’ of 51% of the seats?!
> All consultants should stand for parliament
Indeed, if I recall correctly, your employer has to give you up to 4 weeks statutory leave if you stand as a parliamentary candidate
4 weeks would mean that one gets more than their 1.5% back (as time off)
So, if we all stood, where would the targets be?
See you at the hustings
Whoopee do. I will actually be standing, though I am not saying who for or where.
It’s amazing how the pain is transmitted up the echelons over time. MTAS did it to countless souls. Consultants get ready for the ride!
I can accept the point that leadership needs to be shown in very difficult times. I am am willing to forgo a pay increase if it helps to keep some of my NHS co-workers in employment. However once again we’re treated to the self-interest of MPs. Their expense claims have perpetrated a fraud on the country and now we’re being treated to very senior MPs trying to line their pockets with lobby money. MPs are meant to be leaders within society but apparently not when there is 1.5% pay rise to be gained. Shame on them and all their deceipt.