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Higher wages tempting senior doctors overseas

A&E consultant, Prof James Ferguson, said senior staff are tempted by higher wages overseas.
A&E consultant, Prof James Ferguson, said senior staff are tempted by higher wages overseas.

Offers of higher wages in foreign countries are making it difficult for the health board to retain experienced doctors.

One senior north-east consultant admitted he has been offered “ridiculous sums” – but was committed to the NHS.

MSPs heard the board, in common with many across Scotland, was struggling to fill posts, particularly in accident and emergency.

NHS Grampian A&E consultant, Professor James Ferguson, said: “We are finding a large number of senior clinicians are now being attracted to go and work overseas once their children are grown up.

“I get offers on a daily basis for ridiculous sums of money.”

The Scottish Parliament’s public audit committee heard the doctors were opting for early retirement due to pension changes.

Prof Ferguson said: “Suddenly you are not only unable to recruit, but the guys you have got who traditionally worked until they were 65 are going. The whole system is inert.”

He made the comment as the committee took evidence from Grampian, Lanarkshire and Tayside health boards on Audit Scotland’s report on A&E waiting times.

Across Scotland, the proportion of people seen within the four-hour target fell from 97.2% at the end of 2009 to 94% in June.

In the past, one in ten patients in Grampian missed the four-hour target for treatment, but performance has improved, with 96.1% seen on time in June.

NHS Grampian medical director, Dr Roelf Dijkhuizen, said national agreements on pay and condition meant Scottish health boards could not offer such attractive packages as English trusts.

He said: “I think Scotland has fallen behind a little bit in terms of the incentives that it gives to medical practitioners to work in Scotland.

“There is a possibility for trusts in England to provide incentives that quite simply we as health care organisations cannot do.

“We have national terms and conditions, national agreements, national pay deals which we cannot deviate from.”

He added that A&E was an unpopular speciality because it was seen as a “safety net for anything that falls between the cracks of health care”.