NHS reform vital to boosting wages
12 April 2023
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Government and Institutions
Healthcare
Kristian Niemietz writes in The Telegraph
12 April 2023
Housing and Planning
Matthew Lesh appears on GB News
IEA Director of Communications and Public Policy Matthew Lesh has appeared on GB News to discuss the strikes by NHS workers over pay and working conditions.
Matthew said:
“In the early years of being a doctor, pay is not great. The starting salary for a junior doctor before considering some additional allowances for overtime and evenings, is just £14 per hour.
“But we have to be clear about the reason why doctors are paid so little in this country and that’s because the NHS is what economists would call a monopsony employer. The NHS is the one employer of doctors, they don’t have much of a choice to train anywhere else in the British healthcare system, and therefore, the NHS the able to keep wages low.
“The reason wages are higher in places like Australia or other places in Europe is because doctors have more choice about where they are employed because they have better, stronger healthcare systems.”
Watch Matthew’s full appearance here (2:24:38).
Matthew said:
“In the early years of being a doctor, pay is not great. The starting salary for a junior doctor before considering some additional allowances for overtime and evenings, is just £14 per hour.
“But we have to be clear about the reason why doctors are paid so little in this country and that’s because the NHS is what economists would call a monopsony employer. The NHS is the one employer of doctors, they don’t have much of a choice to train anywhere else in the British healthcare system, and therefore, the NHS the able to keep wages low.
“The reason wages are higher in places like Australia or other places in Europe is because doctors have more choice about where they are employed because they have better, stronger healthcare systems.”
Watch Matthew’s full appearance here (2:24:38).
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