Consultants demand £6,000 to provide on-call cover for striking junior doctors this weekend - and even more if they actually do any work
The senior medics would pocket the money for being on standby, where they can pass their time gardening, sleeping or watching TV in the comfort of their own home.
If they are required to provide advice on the phone or have to travel in to help, the rates rocket from £125 per hour to as much as £313 per hour.
A consultant working an eight hour ward shift from 11pm to 7am would earn £2,504, according to the British Medical Association overtime rate card.
And one working on-call for 48 hours would earn at least £6,000.
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said it is 'outrageous' for one group of doctors to profit from the strikes.
He added: 'It is especially worrying to see demands for excessive rates to provide this cover. These rates are simply unaffordable and would mean cuts to services.
'The withdrawal of labour by one staff group should not be seen as a financial opportunity for another. That would be outrageous in a situation where there can be no winners.'
It comes as a new report warns strikes by resident doctors could cost the NHS 250,000 appointments and £87million in staffing cover this month alone.
The medics - previously known as junior doctors - will walk out for five consecutive days from Friday in pursuit of a 29 per cent pay rise.
Charities have expressed their 'deep concern' at the action and warned it will cause 'significant distress, pain and worsening health for patients.'
Now the Policy Exchange think tank has estimated the 'considerable' impact it is likely to have on waiting lists and health service finances.
Consultants will be able to cash-in by charging hospitals inflated rates to cover for absent junior colleagues, depleting them of funds that could have been used to buy new scanners, repair buildings or deliver more procedures.
But there is still unlikely to be enough doctors to provide a full service, meaning bosses will be forced to cancel some appointments.
Resident doctors have crippled the NHS by taking industrial action 11 times since 2022.
If strikes occur at the same rate over the next six months, Policy Exchange estimates over 2million appointments could be impacted.
It also puts the cost of providing consultant cover at £17.5million a day, totalling £367.46million over the same period.
CHANGE TO NHS STRIKE PLANNING 'PUTS PATIENTS AT RISK', BMA CLAIMS
A change in the way NHS England is planning for upcoming resident doctors strikes will put patient safety at risk, the BMA has warned.
In previous walkouts, bosses were told to cancel scheduled procedures to free-up consultants to cover for absent colleagues in emergency and urgent care.
But the union says these services left being stretched 'far too thinly' after NHS England chief executive Sir Jim Mackey this time instructed hospitals to continue scheduled non-urgent care.
Dr Tom Dolphin, chair of the BMA governing council, has written to Sir Jim saying: 'It is vital that hospital care must adapt on strike days to the levels of staff available, as the foundation of ensuring that strikes are safe for patients is that more senior doctors are able to cover for those residents who are on strike in all urgent care.
'Your decision to instruct hospitals to run non-urgent planned care stretches safe staffing far too thinly, and risks not only patient safety in urgent and emergency situations, but in planned care too.
'It also appears designed to lead to far more late, same-day cancellations for patients. Consultants cannot safely provide elective care and cover for residents at the same time.'
The figures come just days after an investigation revealed coroners' reports had linked at least five patient deaths to junior doctor strikes in 2023/24.
Resident doctors belonging to the British Medical Association have voted to walkout for up to six months despite receiving above inflation pay rises for the past three years, worth an extra 28.9 per cent in total.
This includes an inflation-busting rise this year of 5.4 per cent, which is the most generous in the public sector.
Health secretary Wes Streeting has described the BMA's behaviour as 'shockingly irresponsible' and 'unconscionable' and insisted he will not budge on pay.
Policy Exchange estimate that strikes could reduce inpatient activity for the month of July by 4.5 per cent and outpatient activity by 8.7 per cent, threatening NHS England's ability to meet its target of treating 65 per cent of patients within 18 weeks from next Spring.
The report also suggest strikes could make it 'impossible' for the Prime Minister to deliver on his pledge to reach a target of 92 per cent by the next election.
The analysis assumes there will be a similar level of disruption as in previous strikes.
Conservative former health secretary Victoria Atkins welcomed the Policy Exchange's 'powerful' new report, named 'Completely Unreasonable': The Possible Impact of the BMA Resident Doctor Committee's Proposed Industrial Action.'
She added: 'This is in nobody's interest, particularly patients who will be the ones who bear the brunt of the disruption once more.
'The Government risks further alienating the wider NHS workforce and public sector if they cave in – on pay, on student loans or other exceptional terms.
'Nurses and other health professionals, teachers, police officers and others will ask why they're being treated differently from resident doctors.'
Mr Streeting met with the leaders of the BMA's resident doctors committee last Thursday but talks ended without a breakthrough.
They are expected to meet again this week.
It is understood talks are examining other ways to boost doctor's financial situation, such as changes to student loans, pensions and career progression.
If doctors go on strike, this would be the first national strike by a healthcare union under a Labour Government since the Winter of Discontent in 1979.
The report urges the government to 'hold firm' and offer no further basic pay rises this year but suggests it accelerates plans to enable doctors to swap higher pension contributions for an uplift in salary.
Fewer than half of resident doctors entitled to vote in the latest BMA ballot backed industrial action. Public support for action has also faded.
The BMA says the pay of resident doctors has been cut in real terms since 2008 and it wants to achieve full pay restoration.
A BMA spokesperson said: 'Doctors don't want to strike and these strikes do not have to go ahead.
'All Mr Streeting needs to do is come forward with a credible path toward paying doctors the same as they got in 2008.'
The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.
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