Summary
Is consultant merit merited?
AS a retired consultant, I share Ian McKee's concerns regarding consultants' merit awards (Revealed: top NHS doctors' L30m gravy train, News, September 27). While the present system appears to be more equitable and transparent than when I was appointed in 1975, now that constraints will undoubtedly be applied to public spending, the whole process should be open to public scrutiny with details of the awards and recipients available on the internet.See the full content of this document
Extract
When first conceived, the system did indeed have many features of an "old-boy network", where committees were dominated by previous recipients, and the whole procedure was shrouded in such secrecy that one often did not know who had an award, and often quite why. Indeed, I can recall the dilemma of a newly appointed consultant who was threatened with not being considered for one, if he did not toe a particular medico-political line.
Of course, this w...See the full content of this document
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