Gordon Deegan
One medical consultant working for the HSE last year received a pay packet of €643,633 - or €12,378 per week on average. The consultant was one of three consultants working for the HSE who last year received pay in excess of €500,000.
According to new figures provided by the HSE, pay to consultants in 2020 swelled by 11.5% or €48 million to €464.3 million.
A large contributor to the €464.3 million pay-bill was arrears payments of €49.4 million which arose from the ongoing implementation by the HSE of the Consultants’ Pay Agreement.
The number of consultants earning over €100,000 last year in the HSE increased by 287 to 2,710.
Basic pay
The earnings of the top paid consultant was largely made up of basic pay of €413,747, on-call pay of €144,308, overtime of €31,904 and allowances of €46,608.
The second best paid consultant received €597,506 in pay and that included €216,203 in arrears.
Another consultant who received €492,280 in pay received the highest amount in arrears at €273,951.
The top ten best paid consultants last year shared pay of €4.6 million.
One consultant’s pay of €415,776 was made up of €240,583 in on-call payments.
Four of the top 25 earners each received overtime pay over €100,000 last year with the top overtime pay amount at €113,513.
Overtime bill
The overall overtime bill for consultants last year increased by 15.5% to €11.38m as consultants led the HSE’s clinical response across a range of disciplines to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A spokeswoman for the HSE said on Friday consultants have “provided clinical leadership through all phases of the pandemic”.
She stated: “They have developed and lead out models of care specific to the pandemic which were required at short notice whilst responding to the escalating number of cases.”
In 2020, a further 19 consultants received pay between €400,000 and €500,000 - more than double the number in that earning bracket in 2019.
The figures show that an additional 202 consultants received pay between €300,000 and €400,000 in 2020 compared to 121 in that earning bracket in 2019.
A further 929 medical consultants received pay between €200,000 and €300,000 compared to 885 at that earning level in 2019.
The figures show that a further 1,557 consultants received pay of between €100,000 and €200,000 in 2020 compared to 1,406 in 2019.
