Surgeons To Get OAP Kill Bonus
“SURGEONS to earn ‘patient survival bonuses’,” says the Sunday Telegraph.
Perhaps to help keep the accounts in order, patients should have their stitching designed to say “I survived [insert surgeon’s name here]”?
Says the paper:
NHS surgeons are to be paid bonuses based on the number of lives they save, in radical plans being drawn up by hospitals across Britain.
Anorak wonder if the surgeons will pay a forfeit for a kill, say, losing a tenner for each year a patient is under 50?
The cadaver should be means tested. If a surgeon fails to save a taxpayer, then so much for the worse for them - the medic will have to wear some of the budget deficit. Fail to cure a benefits claimant and find a tenner in your rubber gloves.
The big money is, of course, in treating the old and frail, those high-risk patients bonus-chasing surgeons avoid. Kill a pensioner or someone who needs round-the-clock care or prescription drugs, and get an OBE.
Don’t get old. Don’t get ill.

July 20th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
But will they still get their bonus if the patient they ’saved’ contracts a hospital aquired infection and subsequently dies?
July 20th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
and if they end up paying the surgeons say £2mill a year I’m sure that the scheme itself will cost £4mil to run. More management and paperwork opportunities.
Better still lets contract it out, Capita, Serco and DHL all seem to be doing well out of the NHS (to name but a few) , and would be willing to take on more profit oops I mean work.
July 20th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
sorry am starting to sound like an embittered old hag
July 20th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
No , you aren’t, you sound quite reasonable and disgusted by this new ‘plan’.
Surgeons are supposed to be dedicated to saving lives, and hopefully the life saved is worth living and not buried or in a pvs because of this idiotic idea.
Doesn’t part of the Hippocratic Oath cover this sort of obscenity - do not officiously strive?
An elderly relative of mine ,an ENT consultant developed a malignant tumour in his liver, he refused surgery as the risk of dying in a bloodbath on the operating table was not his standard.
I guess the Powers that Be shall charge him posthumously for denying someone a financial reward?
July 20th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Where will they go next though June, if surgeons are paid bonuses to ’save’ lives and GP’s are paid bonuses to provide ‘out of hours’ care, will they be suggesting that policemen get bonuses for arrests or refuse collecters get bonuses for emptying bins?
Don’t get me wrong I have met and worked with some fantastic doctors who earn every penny they get paid, but whatever happened to doing a good job just because that’s what they’re employed to do?
July 20th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
It went out of the window along with ideals like public service, and doing things because they are the right things to do, rather than the things which make you a lot of dosh and stroke your ego…
July 20th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Over here Doctors pay thru the nose for malpractice insurance - a very happy lawsuit country over here. However, doctors who are turned in by patients who complain to the state medical board are now investigated and many lose their license to practice or are censured - I want to know if a doctor has been turned in to the State all I have to do is look it up on the net, if they were on what grounds and action taken against them.
Hospitals have to really tow the line now and are rated and every death that occurs at the hospital goes against them.
I don’t know how your doctors are paid over there, i.e. patient pays what fees they charge or whatever.
Over here, over the years, I’ve watched those who go to medical school to go into medicine to make the millions. My father who was an old fashioned doctor would say that the ability to save lives ‘was a gift from God and should never be abused’ - those days are long gone.
July 20th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Cheryl
Over here they are all registered, the British Medical Assoc. They can work in private medicine and the NHS. The NHS did go through a phase of not checking whether a doctor was registered, and a few imposters got in the system. We also recognise foreign degrees, bona fide legal ones that is.
Any malpractice whether professional, or abusing their position as doctors or criminal charges successfully brought against them and they lose their licence to practice. This is a serious state of being as they cannot practice, their names are removed from the Register.
As patients we need to register ourselves with an NHS or private practice,and we cannot see an NHS consultant with out going through our GP’s.
The current craze for seeing private cosmetic surgeons without a recommendation is advised against
July 20th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Nosey
I think this is just an idiotic govt ruse, all that will happen the terminally ill will not get to see a surgeon.
Its a bad idea,and could become amoral and dangerous
July 20th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
test
July 21st, 2008 at 12:08 am
Noseycow Says:
July 20th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
“sorry am starting to sound like an embittered old hag ”
I expect that I would disagree with you and everything you stand for Ms. noseycow, except for this subject.
Paying surgeons by results turns them into mercenaries. This ‘plan’ is disgusting.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:53 am
soe englsish bloke
Nice to see that you agree with me on this one.
Perhaps you would care to enlighten me on the ‘everything else I stand for’ ?
July 21st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
soe, englsish bloke…ve are ze masters now, eh!
Sounds like we’re back on the ‘Captain hurricane’ forums topic.
Nosey, I was intrigued by der Enlsander’s comments as well. what have you done to upset the poor chap?
July 21st, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Dunno what she has done, but…..
have you seen the news item that NICE are cutting hard back on drugs for RA suffers, as too expensive. These drugs work, they enable people in their 20’s to 50’s to get to work and lead a relatively normal life
its sickening that they plan to pay people earning in excess £120k pa more for doing their job, but others have to suffer crippling pain to fund it
July 21st, 2008 at 2:31 pm
…a bit like Manchester United fans then….?
July 21st, 2008 at 2:34 pm
…except that’s per WEEK and not per year….
July 21st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
…and the MUFC fans don’t have to fund it. They could vote with their wallets and stay away from the damn place, don’t buy the shirts etc.
The rest of us taxpayers, however, have a constantly renewable season ticket for Ennaitchess United.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:15 am
Mic Says:
July 21st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
soe, englsish bloke…ve are ze masters now, eh!
Sounds like we’re back on the ‘Captain hurricane’ forums topic.
Nosey, I was intrigued by der Enlsander’s comments as well. what have you done to upset the poor chap?
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Mic
Must be my dazzeling wit and charm - or perhaps he’s just jealous of my spelling ability