MPs condemn 'eye-watering' pay rise for GPs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/oct/09/doctors.pay.gp.health.nhs

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GP pay rises condemned as 'eye-watering'
GPs in England gained pay increases of 58% under revised NHS contract that reduced working hours, Commons committee says

* John Carvel and David Batty
* guardian.co.uk,
* Thursday October 09 2008 13:22 BST
* Article history

GPs in England gained "eye-watering" pay increases of 58% under a revised NHS contract that reduced their working hours, the Commons public accounts committee said today.

It found the contract, which allowed family doctors to opt out of care outside office hours, cost the Department of Health (DoH) £1.8bn more than expected over the three years to 2006. Partners in GP practices were rewarded with bonuses for meeting performance targets that were designed to give patients a better service. Most practices came close to achieving the maximum bonus points and average pay rose above £100,000 a year.

Edward Leigh, the cross-party committee's Tory chairman, said: "The new performance pay system made it too easy for GP practices to achieve high scores - resulting in them earning higher than expected levels of payments.

"Partners in GP practices are now putting in less time and their productivity has decreased. Only their pay is burgeoning, having increased on average by an eye-watering 58% since 2003."

Salaried GPs and practices nurses got only small pay rises despite taking on a larger proportion of the workload, the MPs found.

Salaried GPs saw their pay rise just 3% in the first two years of the new contract - with the average full-time salaried GP earning £74,000. The proportion of consultations carried out by practice nurses rose from 21% to 34% between 1995 and 2006, though they saw little increase in their salaries.

Ben Bradshaw, the health minister, said the contract helped to increase the number of GPs by 15% and improve the quality of care for patients. "Over the last three years most GPs have had no increase in their pay [and] have had to improve the services they deliver to patients."

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said the government's handling of GPs' pay had been "staggeringly incompetent". Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: "GPs are paid more than originally intended, but left demotivated by how they have been treated."

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association's GP committee, said: "GP practices have taken on additional work since the original contract was agreed and their income has been frozen."

He added that the BMA had told the government that GPs would hit the vast majority of the targets that would increase their pay.

The committee's report follows a National Audit Office investigation earlier this year, which found that GPs' productivity has fallen by an average of 2.5% a year. The DoH had predicted it would rise by 1.5% a year."

(пусть Шумов нас рассудит, мне, если честно, некогда было дочитать статью до конца)

Кто такой the shadow health secretary?

Это - министр здравохранения консервативной партии (в данный момент; т.е. той партии, которая не управляет страной). Если бы консервативная партия выграла выборы, тогда в принципе он стал бы министром здравохранения в кабинете.