Doctors are getting paid up to £7,900 a shift by hospitals to cover for striking staff, a freedom of information request has revealed.
Bosses have said they do not have much choice but to pay ‘over the odds’ figures.
The Walton Centre neurology unit in Liverpool paid as much as £7,853 for a neurosurgery shift, while several other hospitals said they had spent over £3,000, the Times reported.
Fresh industrial action by doctors and consultants this week is set to see services reduced to levels usually seen on Christmas Day again with nearly all routine care cancelled, as they are joined by dentists and radiographers in taking action.
The Prime Minister has attributed strikes as the main reason he is not making his target to bring down NHS waiting lists.
Hospitals are paying doctors up to £7,900 to cover for colleagues on strike (pictured: Striking doctors on September 20)
Fresh industrial action by doctors and consultants this week is set to see services reduced to levels usually seen on Christmas Day again with nearly all routine care cancelled
Ongoing disputes are expected to offset a further £200 million investment into the NHS ahead of the winter.
Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation said he believed that trusts would have no choice but to pay over the odds to cover for striking workers.
While ministers refuse to reopen negotiations, the British Medical Association is demanding a 35 per cent uplift the junior doctors, with consultants asking for a 12 per cent rise.
The Government previously offered a deal of 8.8 per cent for junior doctors and six per cent for consultants.
Professor Phil Banfield, the chairman of the BMA said that restoring 2008 levels is a realistic demand.
The British Medical Association is demanding a 35 per cent uplift for junior doctors
The cost of covering doctor strikes is believed to have surpassed £1 billion by early August
Support for strikes among health workers, the last batch which took place between September 19 and 23, is is still high.
Both consultants and junior doctors are able to more than offset their loses from walkouts by either working overtime or doing cover work.
Content source – www.soundhealthandlastingwealth.com
