Do GPs deserve their pay rise?: Do chief executives deserve their pay rises?

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7522.965-c

BMJ 2005;331:965-966 (22 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7522.965-c

Letter

Do GPs deserve their pay rise?

Do chief executives deserve their pay rises?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The question whether chief executive officers (CEOs)in both the NHS and the private sector deserve their pay risesis not asked and does not generate articles describing detailedand arbitrary formulas and parameters for pay increases as itwas for general practitioners.¹ How many grossly inflated severancepackages have we seen in recent years given to people, selfimportant people, who have not infrequently received knighthoodsfor their financial prowess, but who have also presided, withtheir great acumen, over the failures of several important companies?

Yet general practitioners who see 40 plus patients a day andhave to tease out the minor from the major—and heavenhelp them if something is overlooked, which with that volumeis a nigh certainty at some point—are subject to thisthicket of performance parameters.

Marx once said that he who controls the means of productioncontrols the means of mental . . . [Full text of this article]

Richard Rosin, consultant psychiatrist

VA Medical Center Puget Sound, Seattle, WA 98108, USA richard.rosin@med.va.gov