A hospital doctor is earning more than £290,000 from his National Health Service salary and a series of bonuses, including a £40,000 supplement to be on call.

Figures obtained by The Sunday Times under the Freedom of Information Act suggest hundreds of NHS consultants earned more than £190,000 in the financial year ending in March – more than Gordon Brown – putting them in the top 1% of earners.

By contrast with highly paid workers in the private sector, who now face widespread unemployment, they also enjoy full job security.

Previously NHS consultants turned to private work for extra income. The figures show they can now more than double their basic salaries by sticking with the health service, thanks to bonuses inflated by incentives to meet government targets to cut waiting lists.

The generosity of the NHS towards its senior staff may anger patients who have recently been deprived of modern cancer or osteoporosis treatments because they have been deemed too expensive.

The consultant who earned more than £290,000 in the last financial year is a breast surgeon at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust in Lancashire and Cumbria.

On top of his £120,000 basic salary he is paid an annual bonus of £90,000 as a “merit award” or “clinical excellence award”. These extras, given for exceptional contributions, are paid to thousands of consultants every year. The surgeon was also paid £40,000 for overtime shifts and a £40,000 supplement for being on call.

A doctor at the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust earned about £130,000 in extra payments, including £50,000-£55,000 to run a regional service and £35,000-£40,000 to bring down waiting lists.

Another consultant, working for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, was paid a supplement of £77,000 in the last financial year for carrying out extra shifts to meet a target of giving all patients treatment within 18 weeks.

Katherine Murphy, director of the Patients Association, said: “It is unethical for the medical profession to line their pockets in this way knowing that NHS trusts are being forced to cut services. Patients are being left in pain.

“Doctors are always complaining about how underpaid they are. The reverse is the case. They are being given bonuses for what should be part of their day jobs.”

A spokesman for the Morecambe Bay NHS trust said: “The consultant is highly productive and provides a high quality of care. The trust is fortunate to have his skills, knowledge and experience.”

Last month The Sunday Times reported that an NHS nurse had broken the £100,000 barrier for the first time. The nurse consultant in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, doubled her basic salary of £50,000 by working overtime to bring down waiting lists.

The health department has already been accused of awarding unduly generous new contracts to NHS employees without achieving better treatments for patients.

A report by the public accounts committee found that a contract for consultants boosted their pay by 27% without any measurable improvement in productivity.

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