Emergency doctors paid £2000 per day

The use of locums has become a bit of a money-making game. This happens in Social Services where several people I know "retired" and then were re-employed in their previous jobs as agency staff so that they could get twice or more the salary. Even the loss of pension still made it worth while.

There's a catch 22 in there somewhere, the fewer staff they can attract, the longer the working hours will be for the rest, but there are some mixed messages when it comes to attracting staff, though.

In the case of nurses, the BBC recently reported that there are 200,000 applicants for just 20,000 vacancies, so there's not much sign of nurses being overworked and underpaid there.

On the other hand, they're reportedly having to pay bribes to get GPs to go and work in Essex, but I don't know whether that's a reflection on Essex in general, or the standard of Essex surgeries in particular. Perhaps there's a catch 22 there as well, if Essex can't attract the best doctors, that will be reflected in the performance of the surgeries.

I recall when we used to grumble about morale/pay/conditions etc. at work, the management response was always the same: our staff turnover rates are no worse than anyone elses. The turnover rates for both doctors and nurses are about 1% per month, which is well below the average of 15% per year, and follows the trend of lower than average turnover rates for the public sector in general.

As a Junior Doctor, OH was paid £1000 too ....

.... a year- in 1970, and working up to 140 hours a week- normally 125!

As a GP he worked 1 in 3 nights, and 1 in 3 week-ends (I did too ... of course, stuck at home answering the phone) and up several times a night.

My heart breaks for the NHS- which used to be the best health system in the world.

I was the same, but, while I was only payed £1000 a year, my house at that time cost £3800.
I think that is a better comparison

This is the story of my life too! My OH as a young GP worked every other night and every other weekend in a rural practice with a scattered population. When he was working the weekend he was on duty from Thursday morning till Monday evening - as well as being on call he did 7 surgeries in that time.

I am glad you pointed out that you too were on duty - I would be stuck in the house with the children the whole of that time as I could not leave the phone - no mobile phones then!

Patients got an excellent service, but it was at the expense of the GPs and their families.

My OH used to groan (or swear!) when the phone rang; and I later found out that when she was little my DD thought that the word "phone" was a rude word!

After I left GP it took two years before I stopped jumping when a phone rang,no matter where I was!

I guess your house was not in London Galen.

No! A new build in the Midlands. And it was in 1967

Nearly all the GPs round here are part time and frequently people take a year off to go travelling. This means we patients never know who we will see and never form any kind of relationship with a doctor as we used to do. If they were paid the kind of wage which required them to work a full week of, say, 40 hours, we would get a better service.

Our dirty, damp and filthy, small flat - half the top of a run-down Victorian conversion on Putney Hill- cost us £15 a week + bills- we had to move out and live in a pre-fab on site in the on-call room- about 5ft x 10, a 2'6 bed, small desk, 1 chair and a sink. At least I could go and watch TV in the mess and have people to talk to, and we were able to clear our debts before moving to the Midlands. Our first house in 1972 cost us £6000 (2.5 bed semi).

Locums! who know nothing about you etc, dh was in a lot of pain and had to call a doctor out one Sunday, the doc came and although he listened to dh chest etc. the doc said he was prob in pain due to a fall he had had 4 weeks earlier (we really didn't think this was the case) we had to describe to him how ill dh was, at the same time trying not to frighten dh as to how ill himself was(the locum had no notes no idea whatso ever about dh health)! the locum still more less said it is prob with the fall that he had pain etc he arranged for our own GP to attend on the Monday the day after, dh died that Monday night.!

Anyone who was following the story of vampire's friend can see what happens when you get locums in hospitals.
Not many doctors like what is happening to the NHS, and because GPs seem to be the whipping boys, very few trainees want to become GPs now.

www.hospitaldr.co.uk/blogs/our-news/new-private-members-bill-aims-to-reverse-tory-health-reforms

This is a private members bill which has gone through first and second sitting in the commons, and is now in committee. Although not perfect, it is better than we have now. Hope it gets through.

For a short time I was bludgeoned into managing some GP services in Essex. South Essex is an unattractive area to GPs for several reasons including schools, transport and housing. Some of the practices have a high number of 'challenging' patients which is also an issue so yes I signed some eye watering checks for locum GPs who resisted all my efforts to get them to sign a permanent contract.

GPs do have it easy now, although they are plagued by bureaucracy. I barely saw my OH during the early childhood of my first 2 children as he was working in the hospital all the hours there were - and when he did get home he just fell into bed - and not for a night of passion! Then he became a GP and the workload was no less - and the pay was poor. We had to buy a share of the practice, of the drugs and of the equipment and we were up to our eyes in debt, as we had a mortgage for the house (tiny bungalow) and a loan for the one car we owned.

So, it makes me squirm to hear about these salaries that are paid to locums. I am all for improving GP working hours and conditions, but not for lining the pockets of those who dip in and out and get overpaid.

And one problem of reducing doctors' hours is that they simply do not get sufficient experience to be good at their jobs.

Did I write that post? (I could have). Of course a car was not an option, but albsolutely necessary for doing all the home visits, day, night or week-end (sometimes for the weirdest and most shocking of reasons!!!)

The reason locums and agency nurses are so popular with management is that although they get paid more than staff on contract, the employer doesn't have to pay national insurance, pension, sick pay, maternity pay, salary increments and so on. So they are much cheaper. The same applies to 'retired' staff who are then bought back.

I could write a book about the ridiculous reasons some people gave to request home visits. I'm afraid just too many people did abuse the NHS and its servants- and perhaps these people were part of its demise, sadly.

And people still do abuse it, don't they? I have heard people in my last GP's surgery f-ing and blinding because they couldn't see someone immediately; in the end they put metal grilles in front of the reception desk.

( Except that sometimes, as in the case of A&E over the four day holiday, certainly down here) there is nowhere to turn.

I have so much time for the NHS and all its staff, as I have said before on GN. But when will the finances be sorted out, so that the hire fits the labourer, so to speak.

We have often discussed, on GN, how much extra we would be willing to pay in tax to resuscitate the NHS. Better than paying agency staff, eh?

Whay are so many of the drop in centres closing down? They were a very good alternative to going to A&E if you wanted advice but your surgery was closed. As for GP's pay; they're all very happy to work long hours at other places for huge wages and then roll into work tired the next day when they no longer have to be the on call duty doctor for their surgery.

I am not being A Political but our town surgery had 8 doctors, 5 male and 3 female doctors who were absolutely brilliant but when the Labour GP contracts came into force within a year 4 went onto part-time working and one retired early.

I know one of them very well who chose to work part-time and she admitted that the hours and the wage made it easier for her to be home with the children. She has returned to full time working now but admits it's to pay for her children's private education, holidays and the fact she has 3 girls and will need money for their weddings . She is an excellent doctor but admits to feeling angst with her patients because there are so many who are rude, obnoxious, don't turn up for their appointments and demand medication or hospital appointments when none are viable.

Am I alone in thinking actually this isn't that much. The article says "almost £2000". If the shift is a long one-and it could be 10,12 hours or longer, if it is an evening or night shift, and it is only temporary I don't think the doctor is overpaid. How many patients might they treat in that time? How many lives might they save? It is widely reported that in busy A&E depts there isn't even time to take a coffee or meal break. I wonder about the statement in the article about staff not wanting to take on permanent employment. The reason I think most doctors are taking temporary employment is the uncertain state of the NHS because of the top down reorganisation and the unwillingnesss of management to create permanent posts.

I was reading about a lady who left nursing in the 1950's because the pay and conditions were so bad - you'd think things might have improved in the last 60 years but obviously not.

I don't think £200 an hour plus for an agency doctor is justified, trisher.

In 1971, I started nurse training and we were paid £4.50 a week, the current unemployment rate was £5.00 a week, a brave soul asked why we were paid so low and we were told that the NHS does not want people who cared about money, so if we were happy to work for less than benefits we were the right sort of person for the job.

I wonder how this fits in with the highly qualified nurse pracitioners of today, I cannot comment on doctors pay as Ive no experience but I doubt they would get the sort of dedication toady that they got in 1971