Lucrative track and trace contracts handed out to the private sector consultants outstrip the average nurses salary by more than 500 per cent, it has been revealed.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was paid about £10 million for around 40 consultants to provide four months’ work between the end of April and late August, according to Sky News.
The broadcaster said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) received a 10 to 15 per cent discount from BCG, whose day rates for public sector work range from £2,400 to £7,360 for the most senior consultants.
That is despite the system still being unable to effectively track or trace.
Assuming that the average consultant’s daily rate is £4,148 with the maximum discount applied, it shows that the contractors are out-earning nurses by 50 times.
The average nurse salary is £25,578 within the UK. Fully qualified nurses can expect to earn at least £22,000 rising to over £28,000 on Band 5 of the NHS Agenda for Change Pay Rates.
That gives them a take-home pay of £80.90 per day, well below what the bigwigs at BCG are earning.
Last week nurses’ woes were compounded by news that MPs would be receiving a £3,300 pay rise, despite pleas for pay justice being shunned just months prior.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority proposed that MPs’ wages should continue to be linked to the average rise for public sector staff as it launched a consultation on salaries.
It is expected to base next year’s pay rise on October’s public sector three-month annual growth figure of 4.1 per cent.
This would mean MPs, including those working at home, would get an extra £3,360 on top of their £81,932 salary.
It comes just months after NHS workers descended on Downing Street in a protest to demand an immediate pay rise.
Health workers are in the final year of a three-year deal and are due a pay rise next April, but unions want the Government to show its appreciation for NHS staff by bringing it forward to this year.
The Government did not commit to an early pay rise for all NHS staff when wage increases for 900,000 public sector workers were announced.
That’s despite a survey by Unison showing that more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of people think all NHS employees should be awarded a rise during 2020.
