Government plans further cuts to consultant awards

The government is planning further cuts to consultant pay awards ahead of the findings of a review it has commissioned to look at the scheme.

The plans came to light after the BMA’s Central Consultants and Specialists Committee was sent draft guidelines for the 2011 round of Clinical Excellence Awards by the advisory committee that runs the scheme.

The Department of Health has changed the formula used to calculate the minimum level of investment for local employer based awards from 0.35 to 0.2 per eligible consultant. If implemented, this will eat into the number of next year’s awards, says the BMA.

Some £15m has already been cut from the national awards “through various mechanisms,” and now a similar sum looks set to be clawed back from local employer based awards, Mark Porter, chair of the Central Consultants and Specialists Committee, told BMJ Careers.

In correspondence sent to members and local negotiating committees alerting them to the proposals, Dr Porter wrote: “We are concerned that such action would be proposed before the current review of reward schemes has been completed.”

In August, secretary of state for health Andrew Lansley announced a review of the scheme across the United Kingdom in a bid to update it and ensure its affordability. The review is due to report in July next year.

The BMA is urging local negotiating committees not to give ground in the short term and to seek to maintain current levels of investment, and above those recommended as a minimum, should the changes go ahead.

“These awards exist to reward consultants who go above and beyond the terms of their contracts. There is no evidence of less excellence in terms of leadership and quality development at a time when the NHS is making extra demands,” said Dr Porter.

“If this way of recognising extra effort is removed, it’s inevitable that in time consultants will treat [their work] as a nine to five job,” he added.