Wendy: Consultant Bonus Scheme dwarfs Clean Ward spending

Whilst Scottish Government refuses to pay hospital cleaners £7 an hour

Wendy Alexander MSP Paisley North  has expressed her astonishment that the SNP government plans to spend more on consultants’ bonuses next year than on tackling hospital acquired infections.  She also called on the Scottish government to stop being a scrooge to hospital cleaners who are in the frontline in fighting hospital infections. 

Next year’s Budget shows 30 million pounds for bonuses and just 21.5 million to tackle MRSA and C-Diff.

Consultants’ salaries can top £100,000 and the top hundred can expect bonuses of £32,000 to £76,000 on top of that.

Wendy said:

“I am astonished that the Scottish Government has got their priorities so badly wrong. The Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon needs to have a hard think about what is really important and start putting patients first.

“It is simply impossible to understand why more money is being spent on a bonus scheme for high earning hospital consultants than tackling hospital superbugs like C. Difficile and MRSA. 

In 2007 and 2008 there have been 35 deaths at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for which Clostridium Difficile was mentioned on the death certificate.

Not only are consultants getting huge bonuses,  Nicola Sturgeon  has  refused to commit to paying cleaners who will be taken on to help fight hospital infections a living wage.  They will  have to wait until 2011 and even then there was no guarantee.

The NHS is Scotland’s biggest employer with over 165,000 people on its payroll. According to Scottish Government officials, 7,867 of those workers earn less than £7 an hour.

Wendy said:

“I am disappointed that the Scottish Government has chosen to snub hospital cleaners by rejecting  plans to pay every worker in the NHS at least £7 per hour.  Meanwhile consultants bonuses alone outstrip spending on tackling infections! This is wrong. We need to tackle infections and pay cleaners properly rather than pay bonuses  of up to £70 000 for those already earning over £100,000″

The MSP is calling for a series of specific measures to toughen the inspection regime and ensure greater transparency in the NHS:

Wendy said:

“I am calling on ministers to immediately implement Labour’s 15-point plan for tackling hospital superbugs, which was drawn up with assistance from Britain’s leading expert in infection control Professor Hugh Pennington.”