NHS pay structure failing staff and patients

A new report by the Centre for Policy Studies examining the pay structure of the NHS has argued that the current system is opaque and outmoded, leaving it to fail both staff and patients.

With almost two thirds of the NHS budget directed towards staff salaries, the Centre for Policy Studies report says that the healthcare’s systems of rewarding and motivating staff are outdated, inflexible and frequently unfair. Additionally, the think tank argue that discussion of pay freezes and one per cent pay caps for the NHS are highly misleading

An NHS Bonus says that introducing greater flexibility into the system, and linking pay more closely with performance and objectives, could improve both NHS productivity and patient outcomes, claiming that reform of the pay system should be an urgent priority of the new funding settlement.

Written by Paul Goldsmith, who exposed the full scale of the NHS’s liabilities for medical malpractice, which now total £65 billion, in a previous CPS report, An NHS Bonus highlights that the lack of geographical flexibility in the NHS mean that hospitals in poor areas have no way to attract talent and that there is no way for team leaders to incentivise best practice.

Furthermore, bonuses are reserved for senior doctors, rather than being shared among staff, and, despite the cap on consultants’ salaries, many are earning far more with 95 per cent of the highest earners being male.

Robert Colvile, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, said: “NHS funding has captured the headlines recently. But even more important than funding is that the money is spent wisely. The bulk of NHS funding goes towards pay. Yet the NHS pay structure is deeply flawed, in ways that make it hard to address gaps in care between rich and poor areas, or to incentivise staff to perform better.
 
“The headline figures in the media about pay freezes also completely fail to reflect the reality of what people are earning, which could potentially damage recruitment and distort spending priorities. If we care about the NHS, we need to ensure that money is spent wisely, and that good staff are rewarded for good work.”