MIDWIVES will be "aghast" at the bonuses pocketed by senior doctors who are already on top salaries, the leader of the profession in Scotland has said.
Figures showed that bonuses averaging more than £15,000-per-head were were paid to thousands of leading NHS consultants last year.
Mary Ross-Davie, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) director for Scotland, said: “Midwives and other health professionals across Scotland will be aghast at the level of payments to already very well paid colleagues. This will be especially galling when they, working in the same hospitals as these senior doctors, have faced years of pay freezes and pay restraint that have seen the average midwife around £6000 per year worse off in their pay packets.
“We are all appreciative and supportive of the hard work of these senior doctors. However, midwives have also delivered beyond expectations and are working incredibly hard under increasingly difficult circumstances to deliver the safest and best possible care to mothers and babies.
“This underlines even more the need for the Scottish Government to fund a long overdue fair pay award for our hardworking midwives and other NHS staff; one that makes up for years of effectively falling pay, and one that shows the Scottish Government value them as much as they obviously value the senior doctors. ”
The figures, obtained under freedom of information by the Scottish Conservatives, show that £43,038,750 was paid to 2858 recipients in the last 12 months.
Consultants and other senior medics receive additional cash in the form of distinction awards and discretionary points which are designed to reward excellence, such as those involved in cutting edge treatments or research.
Annual earnings from discretionary points can range from £3,204 to £25,632 depending on how many points a consultant accrues. The distinction awards scheme has been frozen in Scotland since 2010, with only existing holders continuing to receive the payments.
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said this represented the sixth year of the freeze on these awards, and expressed concerns that it is having a "serious adverse effect" on recruitment to senior posts.
Health Secretary Shona Robison, said: "It is right that we pay the going rate, which is reviewed annually by the independent pay review bodies, in order to attract and retain highly skilled and much sought-after staff."
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