Rowley and Danny,
I agree that the Staff Grades and Assosciate Specialists are under paid and
am suitable chastised for forgeting about them. However, the principle
remains the same. You have senior staff who have been trained as
specialists or who have a long term commitment to a specialty and they are
paid much, much less than someone else who is coming in to do a bit extra
from another environment. I don't care how good they are as a GPSI, I'm
sure they're not worth that much more than the rest of us senior staff.
Maybe my paranoia is reeching Danny like levels but is this an example of
funding from the PCT going to the pockets of the community staff while the
hospital can just whistle for a bit of extra funding for the Staff Grades
etc. Can you see them agreeing to an A&E consultant being paid 50% more
than a GP to come and do one session a week in a GP surgery? I doubt it!
Does it also reflect the difference in the way the community and hospitals
were treated when it cames to the GP/Consultant contracts. Community normal
hours 9-5, hospital 7-7! I wonder if at my next job planning meeting I
should say my on-call supplement is derisory, return it and opt out of
on-call, it would certainly make my life better and have a minimal impact
financially. Also I might feel more able to supplement my salary by going
off and working somewhere else for 50% more than I get in my normal job.
Don't get me wrong, this isn't about 'A&E good, GP bad'. I firmly believe
we need to work closer together to improve the emrgency care system for the
patients but that isn't going to happen whilst devisive pay and work systems
exist.
Simon McCormick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adrian Fogarty" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Simon Mccormick" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 11:59 PM
Subject: Re: GPSI
Shocking. When compared with the proposed consultant contract, that's the
equivalent of an annual salary of £112,750! And that's without
consultant-level responsibility or on-call. It's no wonder trusts are having
grave difficulties implementing the new contract.
Adrian Fogarty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Simon McCormick" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 4:35 PM
Subject: GPSI
Looking through the BMJ Careers adverts I saw an advert for a GPSI post in
A&E and was stunned.
This position attracts £9,418 for a three and a half hour session each week.
My current consultant contract effectively gets me about £6,363 for each of
my three and a half hour sessions a week. This GPSI post gives you 6
sessions annual leave and 4 sessions CPD leaving 42 sessions clinical
activity. I assume this is equivalent to my 6 weeks annual leave and 2
weeks study leave which results in 44 weeks clinical activity. Throwing in
the lack of on-call for this job why on earth are any of us working for the
money we get and would any of us want to work alongside a GPSI in our
department if they were earning 50% more than us per session?
Simon McCormick
P.S. If I've got this wrong somewhere then please let me know!
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