Revealed: 3000 medics paid more than £100,000 by cash-strapped NHS

A DOCTOR banking £263,000 was among 3000 senior NHS staff who earned more than £100,000 last year.

A Sunday Post investigation has revealed the scale of six-figure earnings on offer in Scotland’s cash-strapped health service.

Last week The Sunday Post revealed spending on locum doctors, sparked by a huge surge in job vacancies for consultants, topped £100 million last year.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs said: “Everyone accepts that for hospitals to get the best medical staff, they have to provide competitive pay.

“But health boards must ensure this doesn’t spiral out of control.

“It will be extremely demoralising for other hardworking NHS staff to see an increasing number of colleagues on astronomical salaries.”

Using the 2015/16 annual accounts of every health board in Scotland, The Sunday Post worked out how many senior NHS staff took home more than £100,000 last year.

The figures include basic salaries plus any fees for managerial roles and money paid out under the NHS bonus scheme for consultants.

A total of 2313 NHS employees banked between £100,000 and £150,000 last year, while 719 are on between £150,000 and £200,000.

NHS Lothian and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the two biggest health boards, account for around half of this tally.

A further 41 people fell into the £200,000 to £250,000 category.

NHS Greater Glasgow has 22 doctors who earned more than £200,000 last year, one of whom banked £263,917.

The Golden Jubilee Hospital in Glasgow had one doc earning £250,000 to £300,000 last year.

NHS Lanarkshire has between one and five clinicians earning this much cash.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran has 16 employees who took home more than £175,000-a-year chief executive John Burns.

However, the board pointed out that those banking more than £200,000 earned less than £250,000.

The median annual salary for a Scottish nurse is £26,000.

Simon Barker, chairman of BMA Scotland’s consultants committee, said: “The NHS in Scotland faces competition in a global market when it comes to attracting doctors to work here and we are steadily losing ground.

“In the face of a 14% real terms pay cut over the last five years there are now over 400 unfilled consultant posts in Scotland, with half of these jobs lying empty for over six months.

“Every vacant position makes it more difficult to cope with the rapidly increasing demands the NHS faces. We can only deliver high standards of healthcare if we are prepared to reward the investment of at least a decade that goes into training to be the skilled and specialist consultants that the people of Scotland deserve.”

Health Secretary Shona Robison, said: “This Government values the enormous contribution NHS Scotland staff makes to the health service. Over 98% of NHS employees earning in excess of £100,000 are clinicians or consultants. It is right we pay the going rate, which is reviewed annually by the independent pay review bodies, to attract and retain highly-skilled staff.”