Annual pay of £250,000 for NHS consultant

The NHS doctor’s earnings outstripped those of the hospital trust’s own chief executive.

New figures show the organisation’s highest paid staff member was an unnamed consultant who pocketed between £255,000 and £260,000 – some in overtime pay to cut waiting lists.

Maggie Boyle, chief executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, earned £30,000 less than that. Her salary for the financial year 2011-2012 was between £220,000 and £225,000.

Leeds hospital bosses said their pay levels ensured they could attract and keep the best doctors.

NHS bodies are currently facing an unprecedented spending squeeze as they have to save four per cent of their budget every year.

In Leeds, savings of £32m were made last year while this year another £24m-worth have to be found. The hospitals trust also has to have a surplus of £10m in the bank by the end of next March.

A spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals said pay for consultants was set by a national pay scale. On top of that, consultants can qualify for additional money through Clinical Excellence Awards for those who get good results.

He said senior consultants doing cutting-edge work would be paid more because they would be higher up these two scales.

Government figures show the highest pay band for a consultant last year was £100,446, while the highest Clinical Excellence Award was worth £75,796.

Extra cash for the Leeds doctor came from working additional hours beyond their contract, thought to be to tackle a backlog of patients on waiting lists.

Leeds hospitals have been battling to meet a national standard to treat 90 per cent of patients referred to hospital for in-patient care within 18 weeks.

Sometimes NHS patients are sent for private treatment to meet waiting time targets. The hospital spokesman said that if the patients were kept in-house, their doctors had to take on the extra work.