GPS’ salaries go up as number of doctors goes down

DOCTORS earn on average £113,000 a year after receiving a pay boost exceeding 10 per cent in the past four years, figures show.

Data from NHS Digital showed earnings for GP partners in England rose by £3,800 in 12 months, an average increase of 3.5 per cent. It comes amid growing waiting times and doctor shortages in the country passing 5,000.

The Government has promised to address the crisis, which is being fuelled by a pensions dispute. Senior doctors are refusing to work overtime or choosing early retirement to avoid high tax rates.

The statistics for the 12 months ending in June show the number of qualified GPS fell by 576 and the number of GP partners in England dropped by more than 1,000 over the same period.

Earlier this year a survey of 770,000 patients found that most who want an appointment with their own GP can no longer do so. Meanwhile, the number of senior doctors taking early retirement has almost tripled following a clampdown on multimillion pound pension pots, figures show. Boris Johnson has pledged to review tax rules on pensions that restrict higher earners from putting more than £10,000 annually into pensions without facing punitive taxes.

Almost 1,000 GPS and hospital consultants chose to retire early last year, compared with 384 a decade ago.

The figures represent full-time earnings for GP partners in England, which have risen from £101,900 on average in 2013-14, to £113,400 in 2017-18.

However, the average family doctor now works fewer than three and a half days a week. GP leaders claim that the job has become so intense that full-time working has become “untenable”, with many doctors having to fulfil up to 40 patient consultations a day.