GP Net Earnings

Declaration

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings for GP’s working in Practice to deliver NHS services to their patient population.

The average pay for GP’s working at Burlington Primary Care in the financial year 2014 was £77,845 before tax and national insurance. This is based on details for 5 full time Partner GPs, 4 .75 salaried GP’s and 1 locum who were employed to undertake the primary care services of the Practice during that period.

It should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it does not take account of how much time each doctor spends working in the practice and should not be used to form any judgement about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice – which may be higher or lower.

General Practice Finances

The government requires financial transparency from practices as recipients of NHS money. Rather than present the minimal figures required, Burlington Primary Care thought it would be interesting to put some figures in context.

Overview

Nationally, General Practice receives 8.4% of overall monies spent and allocated to the NHS. For every £10 of NHS spend, GP services receive 84p—and with this General Practices deliver 90% of the patient care in the NHS. General Practices are mostly small enterprises operating as independent businesses under contract to the NHS. Burlington Primary Care is one of these, a partnership of five partners who run the surgery and employ the other staff—receptionists, doctors, nurses and administrative staff who also work to service the needs of our patient population.

The Surgery

Burlington Primary Care holds a ‘Personal Medical Services’ (PMS) contract with NHS England which enables us to look after our growing list of nearly 17000 patients. Approximately two thirds of our annual income is paid as a capitation, in proportion to our list size, and the rest is contingent on us achieving certain clinical and administrative targets.

Almost 65% of the Practice income is spent on the costs of running the business, primarily paying employed staff, and a further 10% of the remaining income allocated to investment. Partners’ drawings are excluded from all these costs as they are only taken when all the expenses of the practice have been met and sufficient capital is retained for development and growth. Very roughly, the surgery provides approx. 10,000 external visits plus 80,000 consultations per year; the internal surgery appointments are broken down as 45,000 with doctors (both face-to-face and by telephone), 8,600 with Advanced Practitioners and 27,000 with nurses. Due to high demand, the Practice has (this last few months) recruited further staff to increase these appointment figures overall by 33% to fit with its vision to be the best choice provider of healthcare.

The Future

In recent years practice income has remained static, whilst expenses have of course, risen. In real terms this means that income has declined and we continue to find more efficient and effective ways of working to improve the level of care we provide; the on-going support of our patients is vital, and very much appreciated.