Workshy GPs could lose £15,000

GPs will be fined up to £15,000 a year for closing their surgeries early in the afternoons, under tough new guidelines.

They will be stripped of the money they get for providing ‘extended hours’ cover in the evenings if they shut early on at least one occasion during the week.

It comes after a Daily Mail investigation last month revealed thousands of GP practices close on weekday afternoons, while others take a three-hour lunch break every day.

Under the new rules, family doctors are also being ordered to help identify health tourists before referring them to hospital.

From this summer, they will be obliged to record whether every new patient register- ing at the surgery is a UK resident or not. The measures are part of a new contract for GPs unveiled jointly by NHS chief executive Simon Stevens and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

The contract promises family doctors a 1 per cent pay rise on their average annual salaries of around £101,500 a year.

Mr Stevens called for ‘major reforms’ to the way GP practices are run and their opening hours. He said: ‘‘That’s going to mean more convenient surgery opening hours, longer appointments for older patients with complex needs, and more team work between local surgeries.

‘We’re now turning the corner on a decade of under investment in GP services.’