Island clinicians paid 'significantly more' than in England

Consultants' salaries top £131,000 a year

Hospital consultants in the Isle of Man are paid 'significantly more' than in England - according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

Tynwald petitioner James Corlett waited for 40 days to find out the Department of Health and Social Care metes out £131,875 a year to the best-paid consultants at Noble's Hospital.

He made the formal request for information after being repeatedly refused by the department.  

The British Medical Association's calculation of the 2016/17 English average height stands at £96,819 for professionals with 14-18 years' experience.

DHSC Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Couch revealed the lower end of the scale is on par with a UK average of £76,000 a year - but where there are only seven pay scale thresholds across, there are 20 here.  

The system is based on the principle of 'progammed activities' - where individual consultants can take on additional duties to enhance their level of pay.

Examples include taking on the role of a lead clinician, serving on a committee, or receiving an additional up to 8% of standard contractual pay by being on-call.

Mr Couch says it makes up for Clinical Excellence Awards given to consultants in England - which can add up to £102,000 to their salary - pegging pay at a maximum of £179,019.

He concedes a debate on the pay of doctors needs to take place, but said: "we need to accept that highly-trained and skilled professionals come at the market rate".