BMA press release : BMA comment on GP earning figures 2004-05 – 16 July

Dr Laurence Buckman, acting chairman of the BMA’s GPs Committee, commenting on the GP earnings figures for 2004-05 said:

“The figures are significantly lower than those first published for GP earnings in 2004/5 (in Nov 2006) and provide a more detailed breakdown of GP income than those published in April 2007. In the first year of the new contract, the UK average net income for non-dispensing family doctors on national or local contracts (GMS and PMS) was £96,593.

“As agreed with the Departments of Health and signed off by ministers, the contract delivered a planned uplift in income.  The pay increase was essential as, while workload had increased, GP income had fallen behind, and job vacancies could not be filled.”

Figures for GP pay can be misleading as those quoted include income from sources over and above GP NHS earnings. Dr Buckman said: “Because the figures are based on tax returns they include private as well as NHS work. For GPs this would cover items like insurance medicals or completion of non NHS health forms”. Other income could include payment for providing specialist services in the community, work done for health authorities, occupational health services for companies as well as revenue from dispensing. Dispensing doctors are a minority of GPs, often in rural areas, who run a dispensing pharmacy alongside their practice and thus have a second source of income.

Dr Buckman said: “The earnings figures cover only the income of self employed GPs and do not include the incomes of salaried GPs who now constitute about a third of the family doctor workforce. Salaried GPs usually earn less than GP principals who run the business side of providing general practice for the NHS in addition to seeing patients.”

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