WPA group CEO Nathan Irwin believes improved and appropriate remuneration for doctors is possible but it will require greater transparency of healthcare provider costs.
Irwin acknowledged that doctors felt they were being underpaid but that could not change until there was clarity around healthcare costs.
Speaking at Laing Buisson’s Private Acute Healthcare Cover Summit he warned that failing to address that transparency could hit the long-term supply of medical practicioners
Feeling fees are suppressed
Irwin explained that the general sentiment when he has spoken to consultants and hospitals is they do not feel they are fairly or appropriately remunerated for the services that they provide.
“Many of the messages I get back is the almost suppression of their remuneration by the largest insurers and indeed, the NHS,” Irwin said.
“I was asked to speak at the BMA Private Practice conference. That was the overwhelming message.
“My response is that I don’t think the status quo is going to change in that until we have transparency.”
Level playing field
Elaborating on the point, Irwin emphasised the importance of an open, fair and level playing field for everyone involved and that healthcare providers must be open with their charges.
“There has got to be a level playing field for healthcare providers so those who have purchased it have got visibility of what they are purchasing,” he said.
Irwin used an analogy where the price paid at in a shop was decided by the car the customer arrived in, which would result in only those cars receiving cheaper prices being driven to the shop all the time.
“That is my analogy of what I think needs to happen to ensure the healthcare providers, whether they are hospitals or consultants, are appropriately remunerated for the work they do,” he continued.
“Fees and remuneration will find its natural level, but that is not going to exist in any marketplace unless you’ve got that transparency of what things cost.
“It’s important that healthcare providers are appropriately remunerated for the work that they do provide.”
Hitting long term supply of doctors
Irwin warned that in the absence of such transparency, there was a real long term risk to supply growth of doctors.
“Doctors can’t be trained overnight and neither can hospitals be built,” he said.
“So there needs to be appropriate incentives whether that’s a junior consultant setting up a private practice in the years to come or the business case for inward investment of new hospitals and new facilities.”