To ask what a consultant surgeon typically earns in the UK?

[Pottedpalm]

Just that really;there are published pay scales but I don’t know how much ‘overtime’ is typical.
Also, if a consultant sets up
in private practice in addition to nhs work, is the sky the limit?

Husband is consultant oncologist.

Earns £128k from NHS. PP extra (but through limited company).

Most private patients get his mobile number.

They can only have the number if the consultant is happy to give it, otherwise, well, they would change their number. I can ring the secretaries, there is no need to ring the consultant.

That surprises me!

@Pottedpalm Your tone is very aggressive and enough to put anyone off offering info

I can possibly help from the other angle.

My orthopaedic surgeon gets between £300-500 per hour for private consultations. Then £800-£2k per surgery (individually, hospital fee charged separately), and typically does 4-6 surgery cases per session. Overall, 2.5-3 days private per week (1.5-2 days of consultations plus the day of surgery) and the remainder NHS work.

I'm sure he has to pay various costs from this but that's a rough income.

jeez! Lighten up! I have read many weird threads on here and I think mine is pretty straightforward in comparison!

Now where have I been aggressive?

Thank you for your answer. Most helpful.

10PAs is classed as full time, however for surgeons many contracts have them on 12PAs. 1PA is a "programmed activity" lasting 4hrs during daylight hours or 3 overnight/antisocial hrs. It might be a clinic, a multidisciplinary session, theatre list etc. Where I work 1PA is for "supporting professional activity" so that's things like teaching students, doing service development work, research etc. The royal colleges recommend more than 1 of these sessions per week if you're full time but 1 is what we get locally.

Most surgeons will work weekends and overnight regularly on a rota so rather than any extra pay for that, it would be bundled into their overall contract. So they might be on 11PA which is more than full time but that means they get half an afternoon off in the week, to account for them being in the hospital for 12hrs every 4th Saturday or something.
Other less intensive specialities where you're on call from home and rarely have to go in, would get a % on top of salary (there are national scales for this too) but would rarely be contracted for over 10PA.

A consultant in their first year starts on 91,474 for 10PA increasing by about 10K over the first 5 years. The next pay jump after that is at year 10.

My DH is a trainee surgeon, I'm a hospital consultant in a different specialty

The ones I know are about 150k ish in London, I think one earns over 200k

@caoraich thank you
If a PA is three hours overnight and you did 12, would it be 4PAs?
Sorry if that seems a silly question

Yes, a resident night would be 4 PAs. Very few consultants do resident nights though - consultants will have a certain number of PAs allocated towards on-call duties (usually 1-1.5 per week) which may mean a night in bed at home, may be some phone calls, or could mean being in all night operating - it's unpredictable.

Hours between 7pm and 7am are classed as overnight so it would depend on your shift pattern. So yes you might effectively do 4PAs the week you did an overnight shift - presuming it is all face to face full intensity work in a specialty like A&E where the intensity is broadly the same 24/7. A surgeon would get their PAs for an on call weekend or night averaged - so based on calculations they might spend half the night operating and the rest on the phone, so their job plan could give them 2PAs per on-call.wa In an ideal world job plans get reviewed annually to reflect that kind of thing.
Job planning is actually super complicated!

I work in a 1/10 rota so every 10th night I am on call and the amount of time I'm expected to actually be in the building is factored into my overall annual PA calculation which is then divided to give a weekly number of PAs, which is how they then work out how much to pay me.

Basic salaries for all consultants are the same regardless of specialty

My basic salary is £106k, for 10 PAs (37.5 hours a week). I’m actually on 14PA, due to on call commitments and managerial duties, which works out around £150k. I can do extra waiting list sessions in my own time, but on 14PAs I don’t get much of that!

I don’t do any private practice, nor do most of my colleagues.

The only consultants that regularly have night time PA are in A&E others it would be a rota ie one night a week or one day at the weekend per month etc

a consultant dermatologist would hardly ever have any out of hours PA a general surgeon or obsterician would have them regularly
overall answer starting at about 100k with just basic 10PA rising to about 120k extra would be more than 10PA or working elsewhere etc or having other responsibilities over and above being a consultant

Many thanks for useful answers.

Sounds like someone's pay isn't lining up with the number of hours they say they're at work.....

Really, nothing like that! My DH is retired and was not a medic. I am not having an affair..
I just asked a simple question.

You’ve actually dripfed about three or four questions, and obfuscate every time someone asks you a direct clarification. Hope you’ve enjoyed the one way street that is your thread but some of us like our OPs to give a little so we can give a little more in return

@SavoirFlair
Surely a dripfeed is where the OP drops in little ( or not so little) nuggets of pertinent information? I have not done that.
I have asked further questions for clarification.
As for obfuscation, how does knowing why I asked the question help anyone to answer it?

Starting salary for full time consultant is £85k, that’s 10 PA which is often 4.5 weekdays then weekend/overnight working occasionally.

Most trusts won’t allow private work unless you work a certain amount for the trust. Not all time is spent in surgery/clinic/ward, there is a huge amount of clinical and managerial admin as well. Lots of consultants are on more than 10PA. 14 is unusual though!

Thank you

Totally normal in the world of private oncology. And given how stressed some cancer patients are, some of them use it A LOT.

While we didn't have DH's ophthalmologist's number, we did see him multiple times of the course of 6 months, including many emergency appts on weekends. On one occasion when he had just flown in and was jetlagged. It was a far cry from 'I've done your hip op, bye!' he had basically committed to an incredibly high level of work.

He had a secretary who basically followed him around all day organizing everything - so his income had to pay her salary, given how amazing she was I suspect this was high.

Most consultants are not going to want to do this.

So much false info with salaries of 114k being for those at the end of the scale who probably are part time anyway!
I just completed my CCT but dont want yo say specialty as it may be outing.
I am paid £84, 559 (bottom rung) as a basic with a 2% uplift for on-calls.. This is based on a 10 PA contract where I do 7.5 dcc (patient facing) 2.5 (non-patient facing) which basically equates to 3.5 days in the hospital. The rest I do from my office at home.
I am also working on setting up my private practice but I agree with pp that you fo need a good reputation to get clients. My specialty however is well known for excellent pp.
I do a waiting list clinic monthly only though to keep my salary just under 100K because pension issues as my partner is currently part-time completing a phd plus I expect to have 1-2 lots of mat leave which will help.
I understand colleagues who do pp in my specialty can double their full time NHS salary but one has to be focused and invest a great deal of time and energy into. I do not know anyone who gives out the personal number to patients.

I had private surgery last week, and my consultant gave me his mobile number, which surprised me. He said it was easier if I just whatsapped him directly, rather than go via the hospital, regarding any complications following the surgery. I can also send him pictures, which is helpful in my case.