Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

NHS Highland spent the best part of £1m paying for just two locum doctors

Elaine Mead, Chief Executive, NHS Highland.
Elaine Mead, Chief Executive, NHS Highland.

NHS Highland chief executive Professor Elaine Mead has claimed it was “good use” of taxpayers’ money to spend almost £1 million on two locum doctors in the area.

Professor Mead admitted the two doctors salaries of more than £400,000 each were “stark” but argued that employing the medics was essential to provide 24-hour cover for emergencies in rural areas.

The outgoing health chief defended the amount of money spent on the two doctors when she faced questions from MSPs on Holyrood’s Public Audit committee.


>> Keep up to date with the latest news with The P&J newsletter


Yesterday, MSPs suggested that locum pay should be capped as they discussed the salaries of £487,495 and £412,625 paid to the two consultants with specialist skills in general surgery and general medicine in 2017/18. The consultants work at Caithness General Hospital in Wick and the Belford Hospital in Fort William.

NHS Highland is facing severe financial difficulties and in September it was projected that it faces an overspend of £22m.

Committee convener Jenny Marra of Labour asked Professor Mead if spending more than £900,000 on the two locums was effective use of taxpayers’ money.

“It is stark,” admitted Professor Mead, who retires at the end of the year. “That is why we have wanted to put this information into the public domain in the way that we have, because this is a good of taxpayers’ money, I would say, because we need to provide a sustainable service.

“This is a rural general hospital where we need to have 24/7 response to emergency care. They need to be expert in that care and they need to be able to address anything that comes into a rural general hospital. Not having an appropriate senior level response is simply not an option.”

Professor Mead said the high wages were also down to the fact that the two locums had been employed on a regular basis. A benefit had been that they had been able to provide continuity of care.

She added that the health board was trying to attract permanent consultants, but there were not that many doctors with the training to act as specialist generalists in remote hospitals.

Evidence submitted to the committee by NHS Highland, showed that locum and agency spend had increased from £425,000 in 2012/13 to £1.7m in 2017/18.

Ms Marra and her Labour colleague Anas Sarwar suggested locum pay should be capped. In response the Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood said: “This is a market place so if there’s a job that said we not going to pay you `x’ amount those people would go and take a job elsewhere. So they would leave that service if they could have money or a longer contract somewhere else.”

Professor Mead’s appearance at Holyrood came as the NHS confirmed that NHS Highland’s financial position means there are “significant risks” to delivery, quality, financial performance or safety and external support is required.

NHS Highland, along with NHS Border, is classified as stage four of the NHS Board Performance Escalation Framework. Only NHS Tayside was higher, reaching stage five.