Consultants asked to 'sacrifice pay' for Royal Bolton Hospital
8:59am Wednesday 9th January 2013 in News
CONSULTANTS at the Royal Bolton Hospital have been asked to sacrifice some of their pay to help pay off the Trust’s deficit and cut the wage bill by £17.5 million.
Letters were sent to all consultants who work for Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, asking them to agree.
By getting the Trust’s 180 consultants to sacrifice some of their pay, hospital bosses are hoping to make a saving of £958,797, which is the equivalent of 30 jobs. The letter came from the Trust’s then medical director and practising consultant Dr Jackie Bene, who is now the acting chief executive.
It said: “The need for turnaround is urgent and we need to take action immediately to reduce the organisation’s underlying deficit position of between £1.3 million and £1.5 million per month.
“In light of the need to make immediate savings the Trust are asking the consultant body to assist us by sacrificing 0.5 SPA.”
This would mean giving up being paid for two hours spent completing Supporting Professional Activities, for example doing audits.
It comes weeks after the Trust announced that it would be cutting up to 500 jobs, including frontline staff and that there would be compulsory redundancies.
The Trust announced the start of a 90-day consultation over the cuts on November 14.
But the consultation had to be re-started on December 14, after unions challenged the Trust about the amount of information that had been provided Just days before Christmas, around a dozen members of clerical staff were told that their temporary contracts would not be renewed.
This latest development is part of the jobs consultation.
Dr Bene said: “This scheme is part of the overall review of consultant job plans. Nothing has been agreed and it is all still subject to consultation.
“All other schemes involving staff are currently subject to consultation with them.”
The Trust has said it will publicise the percentage of consultants who agreed to opt into the scheme.
Consultants can earn a basic salary of between £74,504 and £100,446 per year, dependent on length of service. Harry Hanley, secretary of Staff Side, which represents staff at the Trust, said the consultants were not threatened by the job cuts.
He added: “We are all in it together and they are part of the staff so it is only fair they help make some of the savings.”
But the BMA, which represents doctors, said it could impact the quality of care.
A spokesman added: “Supporting Professional Activities (SPA) is the time in doctors' job plans dedicated to the development and assurance of quality.
“It is worrying that the Trust is seeking a blanket cut to this without considering the knock-on effects on the quality of care.
“If the Trust believes that some of this SPA is unnecessary, they should address this with effective job planning."
AN experienced consultant has criticised “a catalogue of mismanagement and incompetence” at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and says staff should not be made to pay for the board’s failures.
Private consultant orthopaedic surgeon Tony Banks said asking consultants to donate their pay was “adding insult to injury”.
Mr Banks worked at the Royal Bolton Hospital for 25 years until he retired five years ago.
The 67-year-old is semi-retired and runs consulting rooms part-time in Bolton.
He said hospital management has been “utterly shambolic” and it had affected ordinary staff’s morale.
Mr Banks added: “It’s not the consultant body or the nurses. We are talking about mismanagement on a monstrous scale.
“The hospital needs somebody to put a firm hand on it and stabalise it.
“Adding insult to injury, the consultant body has been asked to donate from their pay to prop up this management. There is no evidence that senior management have been asked to do the same thing.”
There have been significant changes at the Trust in the last six months.
Chairman Cliff Morris stepped down from the role two months early and health watchdog Monitor took the unusual step of intervening in the Trust, which was already at “red risk” for missing key healthcare targets, after a damning financial report said finances had “deteriorated significantly”.
New chairman David Wakefield was appointed by the health watchdog Monitor in August.
The board, which was criticised by health watchdog Monitor for poor governance, has seen a number of other high profile shake-ups in the past few months.
Jackie Bene, consultant and former medical director at the Royal Bolton Hospital, has been made acting chief executive following Lesley Doherty’s early retirement.
Dr Bene’s role as medical director has been filled by orthopaedic surgeon and head of division elective care at the Royal Bolton Hospital, Steve Hodgson.
In September, the director of finance, Gary Raphael, left his post at the trust by “mutual agreement”. He was temporarily replaced by Wendy Hull, who left the trust in October and the position is now being filled by interim Andy Morris.
The interim chief operations officer Jeremy Tozer, who replaced Andrew Cogan in May, also left the trust in October. He was then replaced by Jon Scott.
A temporary turnaround director, Terry Watson, was appointed in September. This is a new position created as part of a £1 million turnaround package.
There have also been changes to the non-executive board members.
Comments(27)
judyben
says...
11:34am Wed 9 Jan 13
leigh81
says...
11:58am Wed 9 Jan 13
judyben wrote:Agreed. These are people who have spent parts of their lives learning incredible skills, of which save lives. I too do not pretend to even understand the full extent of the problems faced by the NHS, but surely the failings of hospitals, the expenditure and the management lies with the Chief Executives and the trust. We only to often hear about early retirements of incompetent managers who are often rewarded attractive retirement packages.
Unbelievable. These people have skills which are life saving .They have trained for years and worked long hours to get where they are. They bear a high burden of responsibility. Respect where it is due! It is the managers who earn way too much in my opinion and it seems they are not delivering. It is not long since the BEN was reporting managers retiring early on vast sums.What experience does Cliff Morris have that qualifies him to chair an NHS Trust? I don't pretend to know what is wrong with the NHS or this hospital but I it must be strained to the max trying to serve a growing population with less funding and fewer people contributing to the system due to increased unemployment . At a time when it needs more money ,governments cut funding. Would imagine all the very highly paid managers would do well to listen to the consultants and medical staff who work on the frontline and will have valuable suggestions and ideas.. If the goodwill of the doctors and nurses is lost due to such measures will they then move to the private sector? If you live in Bolton ,don't get sick!
The bureaucracy surrounding the NHS is astonishing and people should be worried. Please let us not forget why it was established in the first place. It is losing its worth, and its running the risk of losing all the dedicated people who choose to be a part of it; both professionals and the front line staff !!
oftbewildered2
says...
11:59am Wed 9 Jan 13
cliff4treasurer
says...
1:09pm Wed 9 Jan 13
No wonder nobody knows whats going on and the effect on the staff must be
mesmerising.They must be asking who's in charge today!
If you think about it each new "manager" (i use the term loosely) will bing a different way of working hence no stability and the real answer to the problems is which person is it or which body is handing out the jobs in the first place as they are getting it seriously wrong.
One other factor of course is the fact that this was a cash cow under the labour govenment so money didn't matter and they wasted millons
Now with the tory government interested in where the moneys going it's panick stations.
what does someone who has "studied all there lives" to quote another contributer ,know about the chief execs role,acting or otherwise?
DaveLister
says...
1:16pm Wed 9 Jan 13
Harry-Joe wrote:A person who has trained fror many years, saves lives on a daily basis is not worth £100,000, but some fluffty footballer is worth that a week! Come on be realistic.
'Consultants can earn a basic salary of between £74,504 and £100,446 per year, dependent on length of service. ' Way too much. No wonder the hospital and NHS has no money.
It is rich to ask consultants to take a pay cut when the turnround team are all external consultants on large contracts, a FOI for their cost would be interesting. Rumor has it that the total bill is in excess of £1.5 Million per year.
What is needed here as Tony Banks impies is to do a root and branch reform and get rid of the many layers of management at the trust, it needs a board with directors and the next level down need to be managers actually doing the work, managing departments not all these heads of division and managers over other managers.
If front line staff were allowed to get on with their jobs and have less managers managing them, the trust would turn itself round, it wouldnt need to spend £1.5 million plus on turnaround Terry and his crew
Harry-Joe
says...
3:14pm Wed 9 Jan 13
In-fact alot of people are bleeding our public services dry with their massive wages, pensions and pay offs.
As for consultants saving peoples lives then yes of course they do but so do Nurses, Doctors, and Paramedics. Oh and also police officers and fireman/woman who lets face it have a much more life endangering job (to themselves) and not to mention the armed forces.
I am not taking anything away from consultants at all. I understand they have studies and worked hard and have a great deal of responsibility in saving and treating people but i still don't think they should get paid £100k. I don't think anyone should be paid that much when working for the NHS or any public service because there is no need for it.
But i also don't agree that they should be asked to give up wages when no-one else is though. Anyone over a set wage amount should be asked not just consultants.
Just think of the money they would save if all wages where capped at say £60-70k in any public service/office job.
Its just my opinion, nothing again consultants.
aardwolf
says...
4:13pm Wed 9 Jan 13
Wigan Trotter
says...
4:18pm Wed 9 Jan 13
davoovad
says...
4:39pm Wed 9 Jan 13
Rocket_Scientist
says...
5:01pm Wed 9 Jan 13
Harold 1
says...
5:34pm Wed 9 Jan 13
Undetectableman
says...
5:54pm Wed 9 Jan 13
All those privatised areas of the Health Service who have to make profit to appease shareholders, will they be paying back their profits to the Hospital.?.... dream on folks
hoboh2o
says...
6:06pm Wed 9 Jan 13
aardwolf wrote:Get real a lot of hospitals are struggling to retain or recruit top consultants! What are you suggesting? we go second rate at the hospital so standards slip further giving the Manchester giants more excuse to close a local hospital down!
Wow, what a kerfuffle. It seems to be OK for everyone supporting the consultants to have a pay cut but not for them - depite the fact that they could most afford it. Don't forget that these are consultants not junior doctors and so will have lucrative private contracts as well as their NHS ones. Also don't forget that half of them have trained overseas and can barely speak English.
zoomzam
says...
7:10pm Wed 9 Jan 13
Citizen Cane
says...
8:11pm Wed 9 Jan 13
Say it is a 2.5% cut which does not affect their pension (the main prize for them). On £100k, that is £2500 or £1500 after tax or £29 per week reduction in take-home pay. Still crying?
They should be contributing more to their pensions too.
aardwolf
says...
9:58pm Wed 9 Jan 13
hoboh2o wrote:goodness. Lets say this realllllyyyy sloooowwwwllllly so you can understand my comment. The consultants, half of whom from personal experience cannot speak good English, are being asked to share the burden. Their bloated salaries (topped up by private practic) can cope with it.. It's what is known as being fair. All the other public sector workers are being asked to take cuts why not them. Comprendez?
aardwolf wrote:Get real a lot of hospitals are struggling to retain or recruit top consultants! What are you suggesting? we go second rate at the hospital so standards slip further giving the Manchester giants more excuse to close a local hospital down!
Wow, what a kerfuffle. It seems to be OK for everyone supporting the consultants to have a pay cut but not for them - depite the fact that they could most afford it. Don't forget that these are consultants not junior doctors and so will have lucrative private contracts as well as their NHS ones. Also don't forget that half of them have trained overseas and can barely speak English.
macauley
says...
10:04pm Wed 9 Jan 13
ALI MINIUM KHAN
says...
10:22pm Wed 9 Jan 13
Andyroost
says...
12:22am Thu 10 Jan 13
wsw69
says...
1:53am Thu 10 Jan 13
NO ONE who works for that trust should be being asked to sacrifice pay. It is completely irrelevant what those consultants are paid, and I for one think they are underpaid.
There are way to many managers who are grossly overpaid, and asking employees to effectively subsidise the dilemma that a complete incompetent management have ended up with the hospital in is just not acceptable.
Shame on you Royal Bolton Hospital, shame on you.
oftbewildered2
says...
8:13am Thu 10 Jan 13
Harry-Joe wrote:well if we don't pay them that rate, they will just go private and the NHS will have to put up with foreign doctors who might be trained, but not necessarily in the same way NHS doctors have been.
Yes they get paid too much in my opinion( and yes so do footballers)
In-fact alot of people are bleeding our public services dry with their massive wages, pensions and pay offs.
As for consultants saving peoples lives then yes of course they do but so do Nurses, Doctors, and Paramedics. Oh and also police officers and fireman/woman who lets face it have a much more life endangering job (to themselves) and not to mention the armed forces.
I am not taking anything away from consultants at all. I understand they have studies and worked hard and have a great deal of responsibility in saving and treating people but i still don't think they should get paid £100k. I don't think anyone should be paid that much when working for the NHS or any public service because there is no need for it.
But i also don't agree that they should be asked to give up wages when no-one else is though. Anyone over a set wage amount should be asked not just consultants.
Just think of the money they would save if all wages where capped at say £60-70k in any public service/office job.
Its just my opinion, nothing again consultants.
Harry-Joe
says...
9:48am Thu 10 Jan 13
macauley
says...
1:25pm Thu 10 Jan 13
hoboh2o
says...
3:48pm Thu 10 Jan 13
MAXSAB
says...
12:59pm Mon 14 Jan 13
Harry-Joe wrote:Consultants like others have worked hard to qualify and gain their posts. I have all the time in the world for Royal Bolton Hospital and the NHS who strive to do a lot with very little for the benefit of us the patient. The ridiculous bit is how on the face of it when Chairman Morris was in post there appeared a black hole. After which he suddenly left early!. I for one would like to see the breakdown of how this all happened.
'Consultants can earn a basic salary of between £74,504 and £100,446 per year, dependent on length of service. '
Way too much. No wonder the hospital and NHS has no money.
What part of his salary is he giving up to put right the mess he had a part in?
So thank you to all those who are working hard, taking cuts and continuing to provide a service for the likes of me and I continue to hope that someone somewhere will take action to bring about accountability to those who forget or fail to achieve what they are actually in post for.
Misnomer
says...
11:09am Tue 15 Jan 13
Harry-Joe says...
9:43am Wed 9 Jan 13
Way too much. No wonder the hospital and NHS has no money.