SENIOR doctors have sparked a row after calling for special "bonus" payments for consultants worth up to £75,000 a year to be reinstated.

The British Medical Association Scotland says the three-year Government block on new distinction awards for consultants is harming the recruitment of new doctors and affecting vital academic research.

However, the call has triggered an angry backlash, with opposition MSPs criticising the idea of using scarce NHS resources for lucrative top-ups.

Up until 2011, the country's top hospital doctors could boost their salaries with distinction awards worth either £31,959, £55,924 or £75,889 a year. The payments are also pensionable.

An outcry over the payments led to former Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon blocking the scheme for new entrants. Since then, the awards budget has fallen from £27 million to £19.4m.

As of last year, 440 consultants received award payments, more than 86% of whom were male. However, the freeze has caused anger among doctors and prompted the BMA in Scotland to lobby for its removal.

In a letter to the Government, two BMA Scotland committee chairs wrote: "BMA Scotland has very significant concerns that the ongoing freeze on the existing distinction awards scheme in Scotland is now having a major and deleterious effect.

"Scotland is becoming a less attractive place to work and the decision to renew the freeze on higher awards is directly impacting on recruitment and retention, particularly in the intensely competitive market for high-achieving medical academics."

BMA Scotland also lobbied current Health Secretary Alex Neil about the freeze at the SNP conference.

The Scottish Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards, which administers the scheme, also has "significant concerns" about the impact of the policy.

In a letter to a review body on doctors' pay, SACDA chair Kenneth Thomson stated: "[I]t is clear from press reports that NHS employers in Scotland face difficulties in recruiting consultants to key roles. The continued uncertainty over the future of the scheme leaves many NHS Scotland consultants despondent about career progression."

While the awards have been frozen in Scotland, similar schemes throughout the UK remain in place. However, BMA Scotland's call for more money has gone down badly.

Liberal Democrat MSP Jim Hume said: "This devolved bonus scheme funded by the SNP is out of sync with many in the NHS who have tolerated a pay freeze in recent years. Given that NHS staff are to see a 1% pay rise next year, Liberal Democrats continue to oppose top-ups to this scheme. Now is not the time for the SNP to splurge money again on bonuses for the highest-paid NHS employees."

Neil Findlay, Labour's shadow health secretary, said: "With spending on health being squeezed every year, it's hard to make a case for those scarce resources being directed to staff who are paid the highest, especially at a time when lowest-paid staff are to receive only a 1% increase in their pay."

Professor Chim Lang of the BMA's Scottish Council, said: "Scotland is the only part of the UK where the higher award scheme remains frozen, thereby making Scotland a less attractive place to work. Our members tell us that the continued freeze is directly impacting on recruitment of high-achieving medical academics to Scotland."