NEWS THAT doctors are being paid £1,800 for single shifts has been branded shocking by a leading Fife councillor and health campaigner.
The triple time fee for providing overnight cover was revealed in papers presented to NHS Fife board as it considered a staffing crisis in paediatrics.
Board member Councillor Andrew Rodger said he was aghast when he learned how much consultants were paid to “work down” and cover trainee shifts.
The wages were paid by NHS Lothian for overnight cover at St John’s Hospital, Livingston, which has only half the trainee paediatricians it needs for its out-of-hours rota.
They were for each 12 and a half hour shift and resulted in NHS Lothian paying about £65,000 a month for additional staffing to maintain services at St John’s between April and July.
As Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy faces its own shortfall in staff numbers, Mr Rodger questioned how the health service could be asked to foot such bills with increasing pressures on its resources.
He said: “I’m absolutely shocked at this figure. How can the health service afford to pay one consultant for one night’s work £1,800?”
The board was advised the triple time rate was in the nationally agreed conditions of consultants’ contracts.
Mr Rodger said: “How has this been negotiated? I’m aghast at how this has been allowed to happen. At that cost for a doctor, our budget would go out the window.”
NHS Fife has teamed up with NHS Lothian and NHS Borders to try to find a joint solution for the shortage of trainee paediatric doctors at the five hospitals in the three areas which provide maternity and children’s services.
From February, there will be only three-quarters of the trainees needed for out-of-hours cover at Victoria Hospital, St John’s Hospital, Borders General Hospital, the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health.
Sharing Mr Rodger’s concern at the pressure such triple time rates would put on NHS Fife’s budget, chief executive John Wilson assured the board: “We will do everything we can to make sure we provide all the services we have to without having to get into this sort of arrangement.”
The staffing crisis is most acute at St John’s, where the children’s ward was closed to admissions for three weeks during the summer. There are worries the lack of trainee paediatricians will lead to a similar situation at Victoria Hospital, where children’s and maternity services are provided in the £170 million wing which opened at the beginning of this year.
However, as previously reported by The Courier, assurance has been offered that the service is currently safe at Victoria Hospital, which is being prioritised over St John’s and Borders General by the NHS’ South East and Tayside Planning Group.
Mr Wilson has also pledged to put Fife’s services ahead of supporting those in Lothian and the Borders, stating there is a limit to how far it will go in working with the other health authorities. Consultation is expected to begin soon on options for dealing with the shortage of staff.
cpeebles@thecourier.co.uk