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Senior doctors are charging the NHS up to £200,000 extra a year in premium rates for overtime, under pressure to reduce waiting lists.
That’s almost double the average basic salary for a full-time consultant in England BBC reports.
Doctors who receive up to £200,000 on top of their usual salary effectively receive double their annual pay package for overtime alone.
Many of the consultants who earn the most are believed to work part-time. They are paid more than £200 an hour, or four times their normal wages, for extra shifts.
In response, Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC: “I don’t think the rates are acceptable. Every penny that goes to the NHS must be well spent.”
The NHS paid almost £1 billion in overtime to staff in 2023-2024, with six in 10 consultants earning extra hours.
The British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors’ union, believes that the NHS would not be so dependent on overtime if there were no staff shortages.
Some 6.42 million patients were waiting for 7.64 million procedures in August, compared to 6.39 million patients and 7.42 million procedures in July, with experts warning the NHS is “heading into winter in poor shape” after the waiting lists had grown to the highest level for ten years. months.
The NHS has been plagued by strike days and illness in the past year, which hospitals say have also been factors.
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The NHS, founded in 1948 to provide healthcare from cradle to grave, free at the point of use for all, is Europe’s largest employer, but more than 100,000 key posts including doctors, nurses, paediatricians, laboratory technicians and cleaners , remain unfulfilled.
NHS England said pressure on A&E departments was “not easing” after their busiest summer ever.
More than 38,000 patients waited more than 12 hours after the decision to admit admission in September, and 130,000 waited at least four hours.