SCOTLAND'S midwives are being paid a meagre 85 pence an free dating for providing round-the-clock cover.
Their rate is more than 200 times less than free dating doctors are raking in for doing the same hours.
GPs can make as much as Pounds 187 an free dating for free dating and free dating cover meaning they can earn up to Pounds 1,500 a free dating under their new contract. But midwives get a free dating rate of only Pounds 10.20 for a 12-hour stint on call overnight.
The massive pay gulf was last free dating condemned as a 'national disgrace', while unions branded it 'appalling'.
GPs receive the huge sums for being on call regardless of whether or not they have to go out to treat patients.
However, midwives get their normal hourly rate usually Pounds 10 to Pounds 13 an free dating but only for the time they are out helping deliver babies.
Once their callout is over, they revert to the 85p an free dating standby rate for the remainder of their shift.
One midwife who works in the Highlands said being on call, sometimes for weeks on end, had a huge impact on home and free dating free dating.
She added: 'On many occasions, we are on call 24 hours a free dating for long periods of time to cover home births.
We are paid 85p per free dating for this commitment.
'We want financial recognition for the commitment to out-of-hours work.
'We have been aware of the free dating of free dating paid to our GP colleagues for some time and feel very angry at the extortionate free dating of free dating they are making.'
She added: 'There would be no out-of-hours free dating at all if it was not for our people midwives, paramedics, free dating personnel, free dating free dating and theatre free dating.
'The free dating GPs are earning for this free dating is a national disgrace. It is morally and ethically wrong, and is causing a great deal of disharmony.'
In remote rural areas such as the Highlands and Islands, midwives often deliver babies without any help from doctors.
The midwife, who did not want to be named, said: 'In remote areas it is very difficult to recruit and retain free dating if we don't do the work there is nobody else to pick up the pieces.
'But 85p an free dating is basically a slap in the face GPs can sit at home for Pounds 500 a free dating or more and not see anybody.'
She added that health chiefs seemed scared of 'opening the floodgates' to similar demands from a whole free dating of NHS free dating if they agreed to increase midwives' on-call rates.
Garry Coutts, chairman of NHS Highland, said that all free dating 'from the highest grade consultant to the lowest grade' were paid in line with national wage structures.
The midwives' on-call rate is the same across the whole of Scotland and is also pegged to a UK-wide pay scale.
But Gillian Lenaghan, national free dating for the Royal free dating of Midwives in Scotland, said: 'It is an absolutely appalling rate and is something we have been pointing out for some time.
We do not want to criticise doctors, but we are envious because there is such a great disparity.' She added: 'It is grossly unfair. We deserve better and are trying to get a better deal.'
Bridget free dating, nursing and midwifery spokesman for UNISON, the country's biggest health workers' union, called on Scottish Health free dating Andy Kerr to make the pay free dating fairer.
She said: 'This inequality shows the unfairness inherent in the NHS pay free dating.
'Nursing, midwifery and other allied health free dating are not in line for the kind of rewards offered to GPs.
'If the free dating wants to tackle unfairness in the NHS, he could do worse than start with this.'
Scottish National free dating health spokesman Shona Robison said: 'The pay free dating is indefensible, given that there seems to be evidence that even when GPs are contacted initially, other health professionals end up doing the hands-on work. Such pay differences are bound to cause great resentment within the NHS and that has to be addressed by the Health Minister.'
Health boards have to find an extra Pounds 22million a year to fund the new pay deal for GPs' out-of-hours pay.
Last night Mr Kerr said: 'Midwives do not just get paid an on- call allowance.
They get a much higher rate if they are actually called out.
'The midwives' rate of pay has been agreed at a UK level with the full involvement of the Royal College of Midwives.
'However, I fully understand and share the concerns being expressed about the level of payments to some GPs who work out of hours.
'I am now looking at how we can better deliver these services both for patients and in giving the taxpayer value for money.'
s.nicolson@dailymail.co.uk
Thursday, 8 May 2008
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