NHS Overtime

Very depressing that things have come to this. I do wonder what kind of ethics underpin people prepared to take this amount of money in the form of overtime. Particularly when they are working in a caring profession? This story makes the case for more prevention and less acute expenditure in health care, particularly in rural settings where people on average are older. It tells us

Growing pressures are leading UK hospitals to increasingly rely on premium overtime pay to get consultants to do extra work, the BBC has found.

Spending on high-cost overtime has risen by more than a third in the past two years, figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act suggest.

One doctor made an extra £375,000 last year on top of their salary.

Hospitals blamed a consultants shortage amid rising demand, but ministers said the way doctors were paid must change.

Payments of about £600 overtime for a four-hour shift are common – three to four times what consultants get normally – but there was some evidence of payments around the £1,000 mark.

It is up to individual hospitals to negotiate payments. The BBC found examples of hospitals that did not pay any high rates and others that had managed to negotiate much lower rates for shifts relating to urgent and emergency work.