In it's second release as part of the Public Sector Rich List series, the TaxPayers' Alliance today reveals the full scale of senior pay in the NHS. We detail the GPs, dentists and senior managers in receipt of bumper pay deals, with a full regional survey of all those whose remuneration exceeds £100,000.
Nobody disagrees with paying doctors and nurses well for doing good, difficult jobs. But the NHS Rich List makes clear that management in failing hospitals are still picking up handsome pay deals at taxpayers' expense.
Between 1999 and 2008, NHS spending increased in real terms by an average of 6.3 per cent per year. However, given impending demographic challenges and the fact that the kind of budget increases of the 2000s are simply not feasible, productivity will have to increase and pay will have to be restrained. A 2010 report from the National Audit Office found that:
"Over the last ten years, there has been significant real growth in the resources going into the NHS, most of it funding higher staff pay and increases in headcount. The evidence shows that productivity in the same period has gone down, particularly in hospitals."
The key findings of this research are that in 2013-14:
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There were at least 50,137 employees of NHS organisations and General Practitioners who received total remuneration in excess of £100,000 including:
- 37,034 employees of NHS trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups
- 10,735 General Medical Practitioners in England and Wales
- 1,794 General Dental Practitioners
- 534 employees of NHS quangos
- 40 employees of ambulance trusts
- 1,757 received more than £200,000, 203 more than £300,000, 60 more than £400,000 and 8 more than £500,000
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2,381 were employed by NHS trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups in non-clinical roles:
- 472 received more than £150,000
- 124 received more that £200,000
- 23 received more than £250,000
- The highest paid people in the NHS were 5 General Dental Practitioners whose earnings totalled more than £3.45 million - £690,572 each on average
- The highest paid person at an NHS Trust was Mary Burrow, Chief Executive of Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board who received £454,404
Jonathan Isaby, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:
“No one begrudges paying doctors and nurses well for the tough jobs that they do, but it’s galling to see bosses at failing hospitals continuing to rake in the cash. It’s an insult to taxpayers, but it’s even worse for the patients who have suffered because of mismanagement, and worse. The rewards-for-failure culture is rife in the NHS and it must be stamped out as a matter of urgency.”