There are two certainties in life: death and taxes, so the saying goes. But has a third now been added - the impossibility of getting a GP appointment?  So bad is the situation that there are even tools online where you can punch in your postcode to see how your area compares. It’s a pretty miserable picture. Last year more than 17 million appointments in England alone followed a wait of at least four weeks. GPs themselves claim to be at breaking point, with 72 per cent saying in a poll that they were willing to strike over pay, funding and workload. 

Unfortunately for GPs, research we’ve released today has made a mockery of their complaints. Because for years they’ve been bringing home more than just the bacon. They’ve been bringing home the whole butcher’s shop

Our startling findings, published exclusively in the Sun on Sunday, included the revelation that during the first covid lockdown at least one GP made a whopping £1 million in “total pensionable pay” (salary, effectively). Other princely pay packets over the last five years include at least one that brought home £850,000-£899,999, at least one that brought home £800,000-£849,999 and at least one that brought home £700,000-£749,999. 

Given the size of these salaries, it’s only right that GPs have a legal duty to report their pay to the relevant NHS body. Shockingly, however, our research also revealed that in the latest financial year the majority of GPs failed to submit their pay data.

As the TPA’s Jonathan Eida explained: "Patients will be shocked by the bumper pay packets of some local doctors, yet the data on most is unavailable. Health bosses claim to be committed to transparency in how taxpayers' money is spent, yet a huge black hole has been allowed to open up.” The full research can be found here.

The grim truth is that the collapse in transparency in the public sector is making it harder and harder for taxpayers to hold institutions to account. Fortunately we’ll be fighting your corner every step of the way. But we need your help.

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A £100 million bill for NHS translators

We were lost for words when learning that NHS translators have cost taxpayers more than £100 million over the last two years. Money that could have been spent paying for 3,000 nurses! 

Joanna Marchong, our investigations campaign manager, had a few thoughts to share in an op-ed for the Express (print-only), reminding us that the NHS has no shortage of problems and that “at the end of the day, the priority is making sure that every pound spent by the NHS is a pound well spent, improving healthcare accessibility and quality for all at a price taxpayers can afford.”

Birmingham residents hit with double digit rate rise

Birmingham has garnered a lot of attention recently with its spectacular financial collapse, leading to devastating cuts to services and eye-watering council tax hikes. 

But as our head of campaigns, Elliot Keck, pointed out on LBC News this week, Birmingham’s bankruptcy was anything but sudden. They have been making poor decisions year after year. It is time that councils take responsibility for their actions and stop looking for someone else to blame.

Network fail

Network Rail has pledged to spend £2.8 billion on improvements to deal with extreme weather conditions and climate change. Taxpayers will ask where there are more important priorities, given data showing that the number of delays due to weather events is falling.

As can be expected, our chief executive John O’Connell had some strong words to say about this, telling Telegraph readers that “Network Rail is expected to deliver reliable, safe, and high-quality railway infrastructure, yet it’s diverting billions of pounds towards solutions to a problem that is having less and less of an impact on the network.”

The War on Waste Blog: January - March 2024

In the latest war on waste blog, Joanna outlines an impressive first quarter for TPA investigations. It might not make you too optimistic about the public sector as the usual culprits are all heavily involved: the NHS, councils across the UK and transport bosses. If Jeremy Hunt is serious about cutting down on waste he needs to pull his socks up.

Covering a surge in NHS pen-pushers, town hall diversity staff, gender neutral toilets and much more, Joanna explains, “we are all left questioning whether the public sector will ever turn its attention to frontline services.” Bang on the money.

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