What is happening with hospital consultants?

[Albert Tatlock]

These top 10 guys are being paid £10m a year by IOM Govt...and earning another £5m using our equipment and slots?

[TheTeapot]

This two threads thing is daft.

[Albert Tatlock]

41 minutes ago, Chutney said:

Ok so they are self interested mercenaries but these people either save lives, extend length of life or significantly improve quality of life. When you put their pay alongside top end bankers, sportsmen,  entertainers, celebrities, et al, then I really don’t question what they’re being paid. 

 

As long as you can pay for it or are insured though.

And...yeah...I have company health insurance.

But get enough people in pain in the queue, jumped by 10% who can slip in first, and after very few months you end up with a lot more people in pain in the queue.

[Kopek]

Isn't it the kow towing of MHks in the health service that is the problem here?

[Andy Onchan]

7 hours ago, the stinking enigma said:

We talking magdi yakoub level here.

Not even we could afford him!

[Ham_N_Eggs]

7 hours ago, finlo said:

I agree with the sentiment, but two or three times what their uk counterparts would be paid?

Exactly and by all accounts they're not even the top in their field. We can't attract the top because they won't get the clinic hours they need to stay the best even with private patients. 

[WTF]

10 hours ago, Chutney said:

Ok so they are self interested mercenaries but these people either save lives, extend length of life or significantly improve quality of life. When you put their pay alongside top end bankers, sportsmen,  entertainers, celebrities, et al, then I really don’t question what they’re being paid. 

 

they can't be all that,  there are plenty of people taking legal action because they have had their quality of life reduced. and plenty of families doing the same because loved ones have died due to cock ups. nobles isn't brimming with the best of the best.  remember Dirk ?   still,  the lawyers are coining it in. at usual.

[hampsterkahn]

There seems to be several areas of concern regarding consultant posts and the following,though not on based on first hand knowledge, has come in part from some conversations with medical staff:

Recruitment

- is a problem and this may be down to how the Dept goes about it.

the past record shows late and poor advertising and amateurish approach to asssesing candidates - A consultant who was on the run from the German police worked her for eight years.Managers had failed   to do a basic criminal records /DBS check prior to, or even following his  appointment.

Despite knowing years in advance when someone is due to retire, I was described 2 instances  where  a post  was only advertised  2 months after  the consultant had  left.In the interim locum posts  are advertised.Inevitably then  there is an element of “panic purchase” to fill the gap.

Retainment

Despite the above, and perhaps  as much by luck  as good management the Service has  fallen in its feet a good few times and still managed to acquire   some  doctors  who have proved to be absolutely  first class consultants.

Problems   of working the UK NHS  (and there undoubtly are ),  have sometimes meant that we have been able acquire some excellent staff who see the Island’s Health Service as an opportunity to just do their job well.Some   are attracted to the Island  for a better life for their family, and  there probably other reasons.

The problem is we  then fail to keep them!

This seems to be the case in  most specialist  departments.They express dissatisfaction with the way the hospital is run and a general frustration  of not being able to change anything - and  just go.

Why?  The reasons  for this need to be explored and deficiencies addressed.

 

Money

The recent revelations about the size of  payments and  the comparison with UK  are a shock.Consultant pay, outside of London is  fairly uniform throughout the NHS, including extras such as seniority awards etc-  so how can this be?

This may come back again  to  how the consultants are  recruited  and employed.

I will be happy and relieved to be proved wrong, but I suspect we have a system  propped up on locum contracts and ( I don’t know )  some agency recruitment.

If this is so, then it is an expensive ,clumsy  and inefficient way of staffing the service.Locum contracts are not  way of attracting and retaining good staff .These arrangements lack any security of tenure - sometimes  they can be on as little  as a monthly basis. Some consultants ,I am  led to believe, have been on a locum contract for  several years.The purpose of locums are to  temporarily and expensively fill gaps for a short time  of need - not  to run a service.

 

 

 

[paswt]

10 hours ago, Albert Tatlock said:

THIS WEEK:

Local Doc: Ooh that's serious...need to investigate that with an MRI.

Patient: So I need an MRI, when can you do one?

Doc (talking directly on phone to consultant at Nobles): In around 3 weeks. Do you have private company medical insurance?

Patient: Er...yes.

Doc: How are you fixed for this evening?

 

Who authorises these people to use our equipment for high consultancy rates to jump queues?

Not always the case Albert . 

I had a similar experience , I don't have private medical insurance, but opted for a 'private' endoscopy  (April 10th last year ) , got it done July 28th (and paid the very thick end of £2,000), god help those who had to wait for NHS.

I could have gone to London and had it done immediately but didn't fancy the journey.

 

[x-in-man]

I know a few people who are regulars at Nobles, for ever going away to see a consultant.  So, one has to ask, just what consultants do we have at Nobles and what do they actually consult in?

[Non-Believer]

9 minutes ago, x-in-man said:

I know a few people who are regulars at Nobles, for ever going away to see a consultant.  So, one has to ask, just what consultants do we have at Nobles and what do they actually consult in?

Wheelbarrows.

[The Lurker]

The Island will struggle to attract quality medical staff as anyone wishing to specialise in a certain area beyond the usual broad strokes of medicine, surgery, gynaecology etc will not get the access to the volume of patients they require. 

Transferring staff from NHS pension to GUS makes recruiting staff from the UK very difficult as GUS is significantly less attractive. 

The only other option is to pay significantly more than UK hospitals. 

 

[WTF]

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

The Island will struggle to attract quality medical staff as anyone wishing to specialise in a certain area beyond the usual broad strokes of medicine, surgery, gynaecology etc will not get the access to the volume of patients they require. 

Transferring staff from NHS pension to GUS makes recruiting staff from the UK very difficult as GUS is significantly less attractive. 

The only other option is to pay significantly more than UK hospitals. 

 

probably correct,  shame government fucked pensions up by not actually investing any money in pensions.

[thesultanofsheight]

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

The Island will struggle to attract quality medical staff as anyone wishing to specialise in a certain area beyond the usual broad strokes of medicine, surgery, gynaecology etc will not get the access to the volume of patients they require. 

Transferring staff from NHS pension to GUS makes recruiting staff from the UK very difficult as GUS is significantly less attractive. 

The only other option is to pay significantly more than UK hospitals. 

Yes we can chalk that up as more “savings” made by the geniuses that run this place.  Make a pension scheme so shit and worthless by putting no money in it that you then have to employ everyone with half a brain as a self employed consultant and pay them masses of money to do short term contracts to make up for the fact that they would be mad to accept a full time job linked to a shit pension plan with no money in it. It’s effectiveky having to pay people well over the odds as that’s the only sound basis upon which they would be prepared to work for you.  

[The Lurker]

I’ll was a multi-level clusterfuck. 

IOMG were warned at the time that this would be a direct consequence of changing the pensions, by making recruitment from the UK so much less attractive not only are we having to pay over the odds salaries and locum rates to fill posts we’re not getting the transfers from the UK pension pot that you’d get if someone moved here on a permeant basis. 

Shot themselves in both feet.  

In fairness and in the interest of balance I should add that by employing locums we don’t have to pay them super-an or a pension on retirement so there is a saving there.