Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Remuneration of Consultants and Specialists.
- Great Britain. Inter-Departmental Committee on Remuneration of Consultants and Specialists.
- Date:
- [1948]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Remuneration of Consultants and Specialists. Source: Wellcome Collection.
10/32 (page 10)
![IO incomes of a very high order. Bearing in mind that the salaries we have recommended above ‘would remove the hardships at present experienced during the period of training; that in a public service the specialist ought not at any stage of his career to require to supplement his earnings by private means; that his remuneration will be maintained at a consistent level until the age of retirement is reached; and that throughout his career the specialist will enjoy financial security in marked contrast with the uncertainties of private practice, we concluded that some. reduction was justifiable not only in the . ceiling figure of the incomes attainable in the past, but also in the proportion of consultants attaining to the highest levels of remuneration. On the other hand, we would emphasise that if the best possible recruits aré to be attracted to specialist practice, there must remain for a significant minority the oppor- tunity to earn incomes comparable with the Highest which can be earned in other professions. There is a further point to which we attach great import- ance. (We are convinced that the remuneration offered to specialists of exceptional ability must be sufficient not only to attract the most able specialists of this country to the public service, but to maintain the position of British Medicine in a competitive market which includes the Dominions and the United ‘States of America. After consideration of these factors we concluded that specialists of the highest eminence should be able, in the public service, to aspire to a remunera- tion of the order of £5,000 for clinical work. 13. Differentiation within the range - (We turn to the question of what should be the spread of incomes within the range of £1,500 to £5,000, and of how such a spread could be realised. We are directly concerned only with what remuneration specialists ought to receive, not with the method of their payment. On the other hand, the problems involved in determining the former cannot be wholly separated from the latter. We are satisfied that there is a far greater diversity of ability and effort among specialists than admits of remuneration by some simple scale applicable to all. If the recruitment and status of specialist practice are to be maintained, specialists must be able to feel that more than ordinary ability and effort receive an adequate reward. Moreover, a reward which would be appropriate when these exist would be extravagant when they do not. In consequence we are clear that any satisfactory system of remuneration must involve differentiation dependent on professional] distinction. Acceptance of this principle without qualification would imply that age or length of service should not be a factor which determines the remuneration of a specialist. On consideration, however, we were agreed that after his appointment to the staff of a hospital, the specialist, although his training is complete and he undertakes. sole personal responsibility for the patients under his charge, continues for a number of years to gain an increasing variety and width of practical clinical experience which progressively enhances the value of his work. It seems to us, therefore, that, whilst age or length of service should not.at any time during his ienure of a staff appointment be the sole factor determining remuneration, there should be, during the earlier years, in addition to some means of recognising and rewarding exceptional individual merit, a uniform scale of annual increases in remuneration applic- able to all specialists alike. We therefore recommend that the initial salary paid to the specialist on his appointment to the staff should be augmented by an additional {125 after each year of service, until a maximum basic salary of £2,500 has been reached. We consider that beyond this point, which if staff status is achieved at the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32170397_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
