Cash for patients boosts GPS salaries

GPS working in some of the most deprived parts of Scotland are boosting their salaries using money that is supposed to help patients, it has been claimed.

A study carried out by Scotland’s largest health board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC), suggests that some GPS have boosted their earnings to more than £300,000 a year.

The research has yet to be published but its main findings were revealed in a letter to Andrew Scott, the Scottish Government’s director for primary care.

The letter was written by the study’s author Dr Helene Irvine, a consultant in public health medicine at NHSGGC, who also claimed ministers had a “desire to suppress” the findings.

Her research relates to so-called “Deep End” GP practices, which are based in Scotland’s poorest areas and receive extra taxpayer funding to tackle health inequalities linked to poverty. It found that over the past decade, the pensionable incomes of GP partners show that those earning the most are consistently concentrated in practices in socially deprived areas.

The study’s findings prompted calls for Scotland to introduce greater transparency among GPS.