The student loans are intended to achieve a similar result. The problem I see with your idea is how to collect the debt if, as they would, the doctors and nurses, disappear abroad. The same issue exists with the loans, but the lower earners don't pay them back anyway.

How to reduce the dependency on agency staff and to get a grip on the costs is a priority, but not a easy problem to solve. I am told that many international doctors and nurses cannot wait to complete their initial contract, so they can transfer to an agency, often then doing exactly the same job but at higher pay!

That's nuts! It's also very bad management to allow predatory agencies access to staff, so they can poach them and then feed them back to the NHS. Longer initial contracts seem obvious with visas that depend upon being employed by the NHS directly.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

I guess that they are worried that they would then see an outflow of international doctors and nurses to other English-speaking countries where the rates are higher. Some of these people are being paid stupid money. I think I heard, last week, of a doctor getting £5,000 for one shift! Maybe that's OTT, but it was certainly an eye watering amount. Some of the senior nurses, employed via agencies but doing regular shifts in challenging positions, are earning £2000 to £3000 per week. Just so the staffing levels are met.

Off subject a bit, but I am aware of eye specialists who work privately as well as in the NHS, who are charging £3000 per eye to remove cataracts. They do this at the weekends, renting space in a NHS surgery with a small theatre for minor ops. They have a nurse and a care assistant to help. So some costs, but they manage 10 to 15 procedures in a day! The silly thing is that most of the patients are NHS referrals to try to reduce the waiting lists.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

Well said.

The oaf needs brain transplant - privately done, of course, lol.

50% of NHS UK employees are administrative and management who receive 60% of the pay costs.
The NHS management is like a mafia. Completely self policed and self controlled. They determine their own wages etc etc.
If you want to review or break up and reform the NHS you would never be able to infiltrate their very tight ship.
NHS UK are one of the largest employers in the world employing just short of 1.8 million people.
It is all staggering stuff. No politician dares challenge them. All the clapping nonsense all self generated to kid their clinical staff.
We are being badly conned.
When Tony Blair came to power, annual NHS costs were £40 billion. He virtually doubled their costs trying to improve the service. 70% of those increased wage costs went to the admin and management. Now the NHS annual cost is £180 billion in England alone.
In 1980 we had 300,000 NHS beds. Now we have 130,000. Beds have more than halved.

Edited by dreamwaverider (16 Dec 2022 3.21pm)

Edited by dreamwaverider (16 Dec 2022 3.43pm)

Edited by dreamwaverider (16 Dec 2022 3.57pm)

Tbh you don’t think well do you; or your pal EDN.
After 7 people dying in a gas explosion in jersey just last week and if you Google gas explosions in the uk you could say I’ve saved more lives than you, EDN and many nurses ever will. Attending a gas leak, isolating the supply, testing and finding and repairing a gas leak clearly did and has saved lives. But never mind I called a dog a slag so I’m an oaf !

Thinking about it maybe a system where the loan payback salary start point increases by a certain amount for each say, two year period you work for the nhs. That way if the start point is increased you get to keep more of your wages as an incentive to stay.
Here is a link but a brief skim through it and it’s not as brutal as portrayed in reality.

[Link]