Hospital consultants’ bonuses to be reviewed
pharmafile | August 23, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | NHS, consultants
NHS consultants could soon be among those to feel the sting of government cutbacks, according to the secretary of state for health.
Andrew Lansley has announced a UK-wide review into a system of bonus payments, the Clinical Excellence and Distinction Awards, which have remained largely unchanged since the NHS was founded in 1948.
Last year the NHS paid out £202.2 million, £20 million of which was on new awards for 564 consultants, raising questions over its affordability and value for money.
The monies are consolidated into pay and add to pension pots and retirement lump sums for consultants.
“The NHS must recognise its responsibilities in the current financial climate,” says Lansley. The review will ensure the payments “are in line with other public sector pay and incentive schemes”.
The scheme was set up to reward contributions “over and above that normally expected”, to the values and goals of the NHS and to patient care.
These include activities such as research and innovation through to quality of care and leadership.
The terms of the review will consider what incentives are needed to encourage and reward excellence in these areas plus improving productivity and contributions to the wider NHS.
More ominously for recipients of these benefits, it will also consider if there is any need at all for compensation levels above the basic pay scales for NHS consultant doctors and dentists.
The independent Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) is tasked with giving recommendations to UK health ministers by next July.
The DDRB will work with NHS organisations, the British Medical Association and other public sector bodies which operate reward schemes as it investigates.
“A more transparent and sustainable awards system will allow the NHS to focus its resources to benefit patients and drive up standards,” says Lansley.
“If we can find more productive ways of operating the health service, then the benefits will go towards enhancing patient care, increasing patient choice and ultimately improving health outcomes.”
Heather Lawrence, chief executive of Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, which employs over 200 consultants, agrees that a review is in order.
“I need to be assured that the arrangements for rewarding excellence are both fair and affordable,” she says.
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