NHS pay clashes likely in two years, MPs told

2 Nov 10
The NHS is likely to come under 'tremendous' pressure to implement pay rises while coping with near-flat funding settlements in the latter half of the Comprehensive Spending Review period, MPs have been told

By David Williams

3 November 2010

The NHS is likely to come under ‘tremendous’ pressure to implement pay rises while coping with near-flat funding settlements in the latter half of the Comprehensive Spending Review period, MPs have been told.

John Appleby, chief economist at the King’s Fund, also told a Treasury select committee investigation into the CSR that most of the rise in NHS spending in recent years had been spent on pay for GPs and consultants.

The government has pledged to freeze pay in the NHS for the next two years, in addition to previous freezes for the best-paid doctors. But Appleby pointed out that, by 2013/14, GPs will not have had a pay rise in four years, consultants will have had their salaries held for three, and all but the lowest-paid NHS staff will have endured two years on static pay.

He said: ‘The pressure within the service for higher pay rises will be tremendous. Staff will be in an economy which will be improving, there will be higher inflation, so the value of their pay packet will be going down in real terms.’

Asked about the rise in the NHS budget, Appleby estimated that the service had received a real-terms increase of up to 90% under the previous Labour government.

The ‘bulk’ of that – 80% to 90% – had gone on pay, and a proportion of that had been ‘siphoned off' to GPs and consultants, he said.

‘GPs and consultants in this country are some of the best-paid doctors in the world,’ he said. ‘I think the NHS itself would admit that they have not got as much out of these contracts with GPs and consultants – and possibly the workforce in general – in terms of productivity improvements that they should have.’

Appleby also said the decision to ring-fence the NHS budget reflected public concerns, but that the increasing cost of providing health care for an ageing population made it necessary to increase productivity.

‘[The NHS is] not going to get that without significant pressure on the workforce,’ he said. ‘They’ve got to work harder and do things differently – one way management can get that is through some exertion through contracts and pay.’

Appleby said he had a ‘horrible feeling’ that by the end of the Spending Review period it would be difficult to tell whether or not the NHS had improved in productivity or raised standards of care.

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top