What do you mean by this bit? If you've maxed your pot out upon retirement, then surely you'll have a retirement package based on some sort of annuity or drawdown. Surely the NHS must be putting the pension contributions into some pot somewhere and aren't relying on the NHS budget to fund that years pension payouts? What would happen if the government cut the budget, do peoples pension payouts then drop?
14.5% contributions is still very generous compared to other industries - most seem to cap out around 5-8%.
If your pot is large and likely to hit the allowance, why not opt out of pension contributions and do as minstadave mentioned with the regular opt-in/opt-out. The money saved from opting out can be put towards private savings.
This is exactly what the government does, this is how the entire pension system is funded, this is why we have a problem, this is why i am now pay 13.5% and 14.5%, whereas the generation before me paid 6%.
We're funding their pension, in the same way the state pension is funded out of current taxes, there never has been a pot, you can't 'draw down' in a government pension, you can't buy an annuity, as they simply do not exist.
The contributions I made do not accurately reflect what i will get, we get career average, averaged per year of contributions to create a make believe pot.
You've misunderstood the contributions bit, I am paying 250% more in contributions than a doctor/dentists did 20 years ago, and they have a master pension, and we will have career average.