500 consultants earn above €200,000 public pay ceiling

ONE HOSPITAL consultant received more than €400,000 from the public health service, while up to 500 senior doctors are earning more than €200,000, the former HSE head of human resources has said.

In an interview with The Irish Times, Seán McGrath, who stepped down last Wednesday, said some hospital consultants were able to complete their 37-hour commitment to public hospitals by Wednesday lunchtime and to devote the rest of the week to their private practice, while receiving additional allowances for being “on call”.

He said he opposed further pay cuts for consultants. He had instead proposed to the Government that the working week for senior doctors and senior management should be raised to 43 hours.

He said all other grades should have a 39-hour week.

Mr McGrath also suggested consultants’ private practice could be restricted to outside of core working hours or to weekends.

The Government last year set a general pay ceiling of €200,000 for public service staff, although it acknowledged “some” of the country’s 150 academic medical consultants had salaries in excess of €200,000.

However, Mr McGrath’s figures suggest when total earnings are included (including allowances) the number of senior hospital doctors receiving more than the €200,000 ceiling is much greater than that set out by the Government.

He said there were more than 100 salary rates for hospital consultants, based on various contracts, ranging from €130,000 to €185,000. On top of salary there were “very generous allowances”. Clinical directors received €46,000 in allowances and there were also on-call, call-out and continuing medical education payments.

He said overall up to 500 consultants were earning in excess of €200,000.

He said many of these were earning over €250,000 and some were receiving more than €300,000 from the public purse.

The programme for government commits to cutting pay for hospital consultants. However, Minister for Health James Reilly has instead opted to try to secure a new deal on flexible working practices aimed at saving more than €100 million.

Mr McGrath also said the HSE had found it “very difficult” to implement the revised contract for hospital consultants due to “resistance” on some issues.

Mr McGrath, who is taking up a senior position with the World Bank in Washington, also signalled the HSE wanted major changes to nursing rosters. He suggested existing 12-hour shifts for nurses could be changed to six-hour shifts (meaning the working week would be spread over more days).

He also indicated split-shifts could be introduced where nurses would work several hours in the morning and more in the evening.