Patients struggling to be seen – but top GPs’ pay rises to £111,000
SENIOR GPs’ salaries have risen to their highest level in six years at a time when patients are finding it harder than ever to get an appointment.
Latest NHS figures show the average salaries of partner GPs have risen to £111,500 a year – a rise of 5.2 per cent since 2015/16.
Their pay is now at the highest level since 2011/12, despite the fact that patients’ satisfaction with surgeries is at an all-time low.
The British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, said salaries had gone up because GPs were leaving the profession and there was more money to go round.
GP practices receive money from the NHS via Clinical Commissioning Groups, depending on the services they provide and the number of patients on their books. If there are fewer doctors in surgeries, there is more money for individual salaries. Yet patients’ satisfaction with GP services is at its lowest level in 35 years and a quarter are waiting a week or more for an appointment.
Yesterday’s figures from NHS Digital show the average salary for all GPs in 2016/17 was £92,500 – up from £90,100 in 2015/16. But for ‘partner’ GPs – those in charge of the running of the surgery – salaries rose from £106,000 to £111,500.
GPs’ salaries benefited hugely from a contract introduced by Labour in 2004 which also allowed them to opt out of evening and weekend work.
Average pay for partners increased to £100,000 a year thanks to a controversial bonus scheme which enabled them to earn extra cash for monitoring and treating certain conditions. But in recent years, salaries have fallen as surgeries received less money from the NHS, due to cutbacks. The BMA said a ‘significant proportion’ of this year’s pay rise was as a result of a fall in GP numbers, particularly partners.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘GPs in Britain are already well paid by international comparisons, so taxpayers will wonder whether these increases are entirely necessary. A lot of the NHS budget is thrown into inflated wages for those at the top and we need to make sure that every penny in the health budget is spent effectively.’
Earlier this month NHS England’s GP Patient Survey showed that a quarter of patients were waiting a week or more for an appointment and a third struggled to get through on the phone
In March, the British Social Attitudes Survey showed that patients’ satisfaction with GPs had fallen to its lowest level in 35 years. Average satisfaction levels fell by 7 percentage points to 65 per cent, marking the lowest figure since the research started in 1983.
Dr Richard Vautrey, chairman of the BMA’s GP committee, said ‘After a decade during which GP pay fell by 20 per cent – something that has had a real impact on GP recruitment, retention and morale – at long last GPs may be seeing an end to repeated pay cuts.
‘However, these figures need to be treated with caution, as while earnings may have risen, over the same time-frame we have seen the workforce crisis deepen.’
‘GPs are already well paid’