NHS

Hilton Church has strong links with Raigmore hospital and the NHS. We have members within our congregation working in almost every level of the health service. Last night on Panorama, the fact was highlighted that in the UK there are 6,500 employees within the NHS paid more than the Prime Minister. The Scotsman yesterday brought these statistics closer to home:

Two NHS Highland employees, understood to be senior hospital consultants, came second and third in the Scottish list, with one making it on to the UK NHS top ten, with a pay packet of £315,500. A spokeswoman for NHS Highland said that person's presence on the list was a result of unique set of circumstances. She said: "In addition to their annual salary, they were doing significant additional amounts of work for a period of time. However, this situation has now ended."

There is clearly going to be a major debate over the next period of time regarding pay within the public sector. I don't know much about these things, but at a time when I do know that many of the lower grades within the nhs are being squeezed financially, it will be revealing to see how the higher graded employees are treated.