HOSPITAL consultants have “no incentive to go the extra mile” in Scotland since performance bonuses of up to £75,000-a-year were banned by the SNP Government, a leading medic has warned.

Professor David Galloway, President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Glasgow (RCPSG), blamed the axing of prestigious distinction awards for deterring applicants to Scotland.

The latest consultant workforce statistics show that 180 medical consultant posts in Scotland have been vacant for more than six months, up 26 per cent in a year.

He said: “The SNP saw these as ‘bankers’ bonuses for doctors’ and scrapped them, so there’s no incentive to go extra mile in the NHS in Scotland.

“People are not applying for jobs in Scotland because they realise that their earning potential is going to be less.

“Even if they push the boat out and are keen and enthusiastic - they want to do research, they want to publish, they want to go around the world and lecture - if they try to do that from a job in Scotland there’s no particular benefit to them and so I think that’s had an effect.”

Figures obtained by The Herald reveal that bonuses for top consultants – who earn between £77,500 to £104,500 – currently cost NHS Scotland nearly £42 million a year.

The figure combines both distinction award payments and a separate scheme known as discretionary points, whereby consultants can earn between £3,204 and £25,632 extra per year, depending on how many points they accrue.

Distinction awards date back to the creation of the NHS and were designed to reward outstanding doctors and surgeons. They range in value from £75,000 a year for an A+, to £50,000 for an A and £25,000 for a B.

However, the scheme faced criticism that the behind-closed-doors award committee – comprised of consultants – had created an “old boys’ club” mentality which led the majority of bonuses to be concentrated among white male consultants, certain specialities and those who did private practice.

No new distinction awards have been issued north of the Border since the Scottish Government froze the budget for them in 2010, when the cost to taxpayers was around £28 million a year, but they continue to be awarded in the rest of the UK.

Only existing award-holders continue to receive the payments in Scotland, leading to complaints of a “two-tier” system.

The latest figures show that health boards spent £7.1m last year paying distinction awards to around 200 consultants. Meanwhile, discretionary points, held by some 2,800 consultants, totalled £34.5m. NHS Glasgow spent the most – £12.8m – on consultant bonuses, followed by £6m at NHS Lothian, £4.7m by NHS Grampian and £4.5 by NHS Tayside.

It comes after recent criticism by BMA Scotland that the ongoing distinction award freeze and a decision against increasing the value of discretionary points was sending the “wrong message” to hard-working doctors.

Prof Galloway added that recruitment was also being hampered by contracts which increasingly require doctors to spend around 90 per cent of their time on hands-on patient care He said: “It used to be that about 75 to 80 per cent of a doctor’s working week was spent on hands-on clinical care, with the rest of the time for teaching, training, research, doing work for their own professional development.

“The 7.5:2.5 ratio contracts were about the right balance of clinical care to other duties. But the reality is that the vast majority of consultant contracts in Scotland now are appointed on a ‘nine plus one’ basis, and these jobs are not doable. You cannot spend nine tenths of your time in direct eye to eye contact with patients and at the same time run the administrative stuff, train the trainees, and look after the various teaching commitments you have.

“People are really disenfranchised and pretty fed up with the whole thing, and they’re voting with their feet. That’s not the case elsewhere in the UK, so we’re not attracting good quality people.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said the number of consultants working in NHS Scotland has increased by 45.7 per cent since 2007.

He added: “Consultants’ salaries in Scotland can be up to £2,000 more than their England counterparts. Lifting the freeze on the distinction awards scheme would be against our policy of restraining the pay of high earners in the public sector. However, we recognise the scheme needs to be modernised and we are considering next steps.”