HOSPITAL doctors have been slammed for “cashing in” with private work when they go on strike next month.
Consultants, who earn around £128,000 a year, will be able to get extra income from private surgery and consultations when they walk out from NHS hospitals on July 20 and 21.
The British Medical Association (BMA), which is organising the action, yesterday announced it would allow medics to moonlight on strike days.
It comes after The Sun revealed consultants were earning up to £2,000 a day covering striking junior doctors in April.
Some charged more than four times their normal daily rate.
Junior doctors will strike again next month, this time for five days from July 13 to 18, in the longest walkout in the history of the NHS.
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Patient rights groups called the BMA’s decision to allow consultants to earn extra cash on their own strike days from just two days later “unconscionable”.
Tory MP Paul Bristow, who sits on the Commons health and social care committee, told the Daily Mail: "How can it be right that in a middle of a strike, some consultants will be cashing in?
"This is a kick in the teeth for patients waiting for life-changing surgery.
"The BMA need to get round the table and negotiate on behalf of their members."
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NHS consultants currently do around 800,000 private procedures a year, figures show.
Normally they charge around £2,500 for a hip or knee replacement, according to the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN).
A BMA spokesperson said consultants that are contracted to do NHS work but not provide cover “have the ability to work in a private setting on strike days if they wish”.
The union said it would encourage them to support the industrial action on picket lines instead and remain available to the NHS in case it is called off.
Consultants and junior medics are both calling for a pay rise of up to 35 per cent.
Estimates suggest the combined seven days of action could lead to 300,000 appointments being cancelled.
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