Published 21 August 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3408
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3408

News

Dutch hospital consultants threaten legal action over wholesale pay cuts

Tony Sheldon

1 Utrecht

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

Dutch hospital consultants are threatening legal action against their government’s proposals to claw back hundreds of millions of euros from their salaries after a new payment system—designed to reward performance—sparked steep pay rises.

Both sides accept that the new system, based on declarations of treatments carried out rather than on lump sum payments, has flaws. Some hospital consultants—already among the best paid in the world—found their salaries unintentionally increased by 50% in 2008.

Measures now proposed include an 11% cut across the board for all consultants’ hourly pay rates in a bid to avoid an overspend of {euro}375m (£323m; $534m) in 2010.

But the hospital consultants’ professional body, the Order of Medical Specialists, has called the measures "draconian" and plans a legal challenge; individual hospital consultants have launched an online petition opposing the cuts (www.bezorgd.org).

Since 2008 most hospital consultants have been paid through a system of declarations . . . [Full text of this article]


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