From April 30, 2006

Consultants at Kingston Hospital were given a £2.5m pay rise, to the astonishment of health union Unison.

Following NHS contracts in 2003, signed by 108 consultants, £2.5million was added to their budget.

That equated to £23,000 per consultant. Two-and-a-half thousand other workers also got more money under the new pay system. But their total came to just £2.5million.

Michael Walker, Kingston Hospital’s Unison rep, said: “I think people always expected doctors and nurses to be paid better. But they will be shocked at the amount going towards one already well-paid group.

“This government is spending more money on the NHS but what has happened is that self-interested groups have managed to swallow up a large amount of that money.”

He argued that consultants’ salaries, coupled with GPs’ pay rises and PFI repayments – which have increased massively at Kingston Hospital due to the new wing – had consumed large amounts of health funding.

But Kingston Hospital consultants claimed that the Department of Health underestimated their workload.

Consultant surgeon Peter Willson said: “It turned out that consultants would be working far more than the hospital anticipated.The government assumed that consultants would be working 40 hours a week.

“But in my department alone, every consultant is working more than a 44 hour week and doing a lot more than what is expected of them.”

When the new contracts were introduced, consultants were required to keep a detailed account of their NHS work, and Dr Willson said that many consultants’ diary cards exceed the maximum contract.

He said: “The Department of Health’s impression of consultants is that we are a lazy bunch of pin-striped individuals, but the diary card exercise shows that we work very hard for the NHS.”

He added: “I am happy with the pay rise and it gives the hospital flexibility over my work.”

But Unison said many nurses found it unfair that consultants got a pay rise larger than the annual nursing salary.

While Kingston Hospital consultants took home about £100,000 including private work, the average nurse earned just £25,000.

A record amount of money was spent on healthcare in 2006.

However Mr Walker said: “At the same time we are being told to tighten our belts and people are asking me where all the extra money is going.

“It is hard to explain to a nurse at Tolworth Hospital who is losing her job and being told at the same time we need more community hospitals.”