Sal Paradise wrote:
Specialists contracted to the NHS work their contracted hours within the NHS - the majority work well in excess of their contracted hours for no extra money. For their skill level these people are significantly underpaid. Private work is done in their spare time at no detrement to the NHS in fact it helps to reduce waiting lists. It also allows these highly skilled people to earn something close to their worth and prevents them working in other countries where the rewards would be significantly greater. Why is this morally wrong? what would be morally wrong is for someone to dictate what an individual can do in his or hers leisure time. They are not consuming NHS resource to do this work what is the issue?
I happen to know one of these "specialists", he is employed within the NHS as a consultant (the medical use of the name not the bullshit business use) and his main contract of employment is within the NHS. He does some private work for the likes of BUPA in their local hospital but he doesn't see it as "spare time" work, his work is far too critical to just regard as "doing a guvvy job", and he earns significant sums of money within the NHS even before his private work, I know what he earns because he is friend of 40-odd years history with me and we call it like it is to each other, believe me, his worth to the NHS is well rewarded.
Interestingly he trained at the LGI in the 1970s, worked within the NHS for a while and then took a consultants role in private medicine in London in the late 80s when it looked as thought he NHS was dead in the water and private medicine was where it was at, his wage there was eye-watering but ultimately he admits that he spent the effing lot on a lifestyle that matched the stipend and it genuinely was his conscience that sent him back to the NHS in Lancashire, so much so that when the three other consultants at his grade in his Health Trust offered him a share of the private work he turned it down.
