UK Edition
GPs saw their earnings rise to £142,000 during the pandemic in a Covid pay boom, new data show.
The official NHS figures reveal that as surgeries closed their doors to patients, routinely restricting face-to-face appointments, doctors’ incomes rose to unprecedented heights.
GP partners – who make up the majority of family doctors – saw average incomes rise by £20,000 to £142,000 in the 12 months after the first lockdown.
The 17 per cent rise, the largest on record, came as the NHS moved to a system of “total triage”, with patients refused GP appointments in person unless they had a telephone consultation first.
Some of the extra money will have come from delivering the Covid vaccine rollout and because GPs were paid for tasks they no longer had to do during the pandemic.
On Thursday night, patients’ groups said the increase was “extremely difficult to justify” and would prove “incredibly irritating and distressing” to people who have struggled to see a GP.
It comes as GPs threaten industrial action over a contract that forces some practices to open on Saturdays. The vote was passed at the British Medical Association (BMA) annual conference earlier this summer, when doctors were urged to “channel our inner Mick Lynch”.
The statistics for England show that average incomes for all GPs, including salaried doctors, rose by 11 per cent in the first year of the pandemic, increasing from £100,700 in 2019-20 to £111,900 in 2020-2021.
The NHS Digital figures are the average earnings per GP in England, regardless of the hours they worked, and include any private work.
Government research revealed that most GPs now work three days or fewer a week following a “substantial” fall in hours since the pandemic. The figures for 2021 showed 58.4 per cent of family doctors working six half-day sessions or less – the equivalent of three days.
Earlier this year, figures revealed that public satisfaction with GP services had fallen to the lowest level on record. Under two-fifths of people were satisfied with the service from family doctors last year, according to the British Social Attitudes survey, the lowest proportion since it began in 1983.
Before the pandemic, around 80 per cent of GP consultations took place in person. During the first lockdown that fell to as low as 47 per cent, since when it has risen to 65 per cent.
Dennis Reed, of the Silver Voices campaign group, urged ministers to explain how such spending had been allowed, saying: “We all want a professional and well-qualified and skilled GP service, but it is difficult to justify increases at that level, taking earnings to that level.
“These increases were at a time when the whole country was struggling, with many people furloughed.
“It will be incredibly irritating and distressing for elderly people who struggled to get a face-to-face appointment, or sometimes to get an appointment at all, to know that GPs were getting such huge increases and to hear it now as the whole country faces a cost of living crisis.”
During the pandemic, GP practices were paid £13 per Covid vaccination, with rates rising to £15 and extra on Sundays as the crisis became more urgent.
Meanwhile, the framework that normally governs their pay, linking it to how much work they do, was partially suspended. Under a deal negotiated with the BMA, GPs continued to be paid for tasks such as checks on the elderly and monitoring patients with asthma, diabetes and heart disease without having to do them.
Because GPs are self-employed, they were also able to apply for government support schemes, with successful claimants on average receiving an extra £12,500.
Dr Farah Jameel, the BMA England GP committee chairman, said the earnings figures reflected “monumental efforts” by family doctors during the pandemic, adding that they had “pushed themselves to the limit”.
She added: “They also represent the additional short-term and temporary emergency Covid response funding given to practices to enable them to successfully deliver the vaccination programme, despite huge and historic workforce shortages.”
It comes amid widespread shortages of GPs. On Monday, an investigation revealed that 1.5 million people have lost their GP in the last eight years following the closure of almost 500 practices.
Prof Martin Marshall, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs, has said the role has become so stressful that it was now “undoable” on a full-time basis.
The NHS earnings figures show significant rises for GPs in other parts of the UK, but not on the scale seen in England. NHS Digital said some of the difference might be explained by more GPs in England being involved in the rollout of Covid jabs than was the case in Scotland or Wales.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “GPs played a vital role in the rollout of our world-leading Covid vaccination programme – during the first phases they delivered around 56 per cent of all jabs. This key contribution increased practice income and average GP contractor earnings.
“We know the public greatly appreciates GP access. That is why we are working hard to support and grow the GP workforce. In addition, we have invested £520 million to expand GP capacity during the pandemic, on top of £1.5 billion until 2024.
“We are also making 4,000 training places available for GPs each year to help create an extra 50 million appointments a year.”
Separate figures have shown record vacancies across the NHS, with more than one in 10 posts empty by the end of June. The NHS Digital statistics revealed 132,139 full-time equivalent vacancies across the health service, up from 105,855 in March. The previous peak, in June 2019, saw 111,864 posts empty.
NHS Providers said the statistics were “staggering”, while the Royal College of Nursing warned that nurse vacancies have risen by more than a fifth in a year, with almost 47,000 jobs unfilled in the quarter ending in June.