Are Doctors becoming greedy?

I recently read that some Doctors are now working through agencies and are now demanding higher than ever salaries. Apparently this is heavily eating into NHS budgets. My question is are doctors getting greedy? perhaps it's becming like football but on a much smaller scale of course but still with the use of agents negotiating on your behalf. If this is the case then the NHS are in a no win situation, there is obviously a need of doctors and they have to recruit them but if there is none other than through agencies then they are forced to meet pay demands.

Originally posted by "Lickszz"

 

I recently read that some Doctors are now working through agencies and are now demanding higher than ever salaries. Apparently this is heavily eating into NHS budgets. My question is are doctors getting greedy? perhaps it's becming like football but on a much smaller scale of course but still with the use of agents negotiating on your behalf. If this is the case then the NHS are in a no win situation, there is obviously a need of doctors and they have to recruit them but if there is none other than through agencies then they are forced to meet pay demands.

Are you referring to recruitment agencies? All of these take a fee, I think usually in the form of a percentage of your wage - if doctors getting jobs through agencies accepted the same pay as for a job gained 'directly' they'd effectively be getting a pay cut as their portion of the pay is lower. This is no different to any job you get through an agency.

NHS wages vary hugely between the different types of job - some people earn every penny they work for (most of the doctors) while some earn more than they're worth (managers) and some less (nurses). Even this is a very broad generalisation, though, and is my opinion based on knowing people in the profession and how had they work. The whole organisation does seem to be in a mess - privatising bits of it has not improved the NHS as a whole and I'm quite sure any improvements part-privatisation has brought could have been achieved through a wholly-publically owned NHS. There is a lot of money wasted - if any money should be saved in the NHS then this wasteage should be stemmed before any consideration is made to cutting the wages of the people who make the service work.

I dont believe doctors are becoming greedy. They work all the hours god sends and then still go home to "work". They do on-call at weekends, nights and even when they are on holidays. I think they deserve every penny they get which is not really an awful lot for what they do in comparison to some "managers salaries". It is not the doctors fault the NHS is at breaking point, it is too many government policies which, are changing constantly and a situation of their being "more managers than beds"!!!

Apparently the NHS was once a British heritage, something to be really proud of but the government has seen to destroying that.

Enough said - Im off my soapbox now!!!!

These days most GP's have changed their phone numbers to those premium rate lines so you're lining their pockets that way too

Originally posted by Chris

Are you referring to recruitment agencies? All of these take a fee, I think usually in the form of a percentage of your wage - if doctors getting jobs through agencies accepted the same pay as for a job gained 'directly' they'd effectively be getting a pay cut as their portion of the pay is lower. This is no different to any job you get through an agency.

 

This is not quite how agencies work - they do not take their cut from the workers actual pay. The agency worker gets paid the same (or often more) than they would working directly for the organisation. The agency then charges an hourly fee to the organisation which consists of the hourly rate being paid to the worker (which includes a percentage to cover holiday pay), the national insurance contributions the agency has to make for that worker, and then their mark up (their fee). The agency I used to work for would add the worker's hourly rate and NI together and then times that by anything between 1.6 and 2.3 to get the hourly rate they would charge to the client. Hence the organisation employing the agency worker pays much much more than if they were employing that person directly - hence why agency fees drain the NHs of money.

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick

These days most GP's have changed their phone numbers to those premium rate lines so you're lining their pockets that way too

Are you quite sure? My local surgery has changed to an 0845 number, which is local rate only - NOT premium rate.

The plan being that we now have a single number to call, day or night, so if the surgery is closed, the call will divert elsewhere.

The Health authority is currently looking at the use of 0845 type numbers as often GP surgeries are (very!) difficult to get through to and these numbers do no offer the ringback facility.

I do think that there is a certain amount of greed in the medical profession but in addition the profession is under a deal of pressure from many different angles.

As always in an open market, the market forces work to drive up or down the costs!

Originally posted by redhotjo

I do think that there is a certain amount of greed in the medical profession but in addition the profession is under a deal of pressure from many different angles.

While the salaries for NHS consultants look pretty rosy, I expect that they will have spent years, if not decades, getting to the top of their respective fields and could expect to earn far much more had they been working in the private sector instead.

Mind you, I suppose you really can't reward who those heal the sick and mend the damaged enough.

Malpractice insurance it why they have to charge what they do, too many sue happy people out there. don't think they've been able to put a cap on it yet .

actually medical insurance is not why they have to put prices up as this is a tax deductable expense and although this has increased over the years with a "sue" and "compensation" culture this is not the reason.

The problem is that there are insufficient drs in the country and as such they can afford to demand higher salaries/locum payments as the health trusts have to meet their service level agreements.

the 0845 number is because HM Govt has introduced it as a matter of policy; the theory is that the people who answer these calls will be able to determine the necessity for hospital care in order to reduce the number of people referred to hospital. As I gather the people who take these calls are some kind of nursing staff and not GPs, I wouldnt be surprised to learn the referrals have increased.

This is not something any of the GPs in the country can do anything about because it is Labour Government Policy. If you dont like it, write to your MP assuming they are at all interested to listen to what you've got to say.

Originally posted by wendygs

the 0845 number is because HM Govt has introduced it as a matter of policy; the theory is that the people who answer these calls will be able to determine the necessity for hospital care in order to reduce the number of people referred to hospital. As I gather the people who take these calls are some kind of nursing staff and not GPs, I wouldnt be surprised to learn the referrals have increased.

 

This is not something any of the GPs in the country can do anything about because it is Labour Government Policy. If you dont like it, write to your MP assuming they are at all interested to listen to what you've got to say.

I think the previous post was referring to GP surgeries having 0845 numbers - mine does, but it only gets you through to the receptionist, just as the old number did.