UK Study Highlights Family Doctors' Earnings

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 01 Nov 2007 - 2:00 PDT

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Family doctors earned on average £110,000 during 2005/06, according to figures published yesterday by The Information Centre for health and social care.

An analysis of tax returns for contracted GPs in the UK found that their (pre-tax) net profits rose by an average of 9.8 per cent in 2005/06, compared to the previous year.

The report presents the initial results of the 2005/06 GP Earnings and Expenses Enquiry and has been agreed by the Technical Steering Committee which includes representatives from the four UK health departments, NHS Employers and the British Medical Association.

Because it reflects earnings reported on tax returns, it includes private as well as NHS work and covers both full and part-time GPs.

The report shows average net profits for GPs varied in the different countries of the UK:

Average net profits after expenses in 2005/06 were:

- £113,600 in England - a rise of 9.7 per cent
- £98,700 in Northern Ireland - a rise of 8.2 per cent
- £90,600 in Scotland - a rise of 9.6 per cent
- £102,200 in Wales - a rise of 11.6 per cent.

GPs who worked in practices dispensing prescriptions had an average net profit of £127,100 (an increase of 6.3 per cent on 2004/05) after expenses, while non-dispensing GPs had an average net profit of £106,700 (an increase of 10.4 per cent) after expenses.

The report shows a wide distribution of net profits among contracted GPs. At the lowest end of the scale, 5.9 per cent of GPs had net profits less than £50,000. This compares to 9.0 per cent with net profits at this level during 2004/05.

At the highest end of the scale, the percentage of GPs with net profits more than £200,000 increased from 1.9 per cent in 2004/05 to 3.3 per cent in 2005/06.

Separate analyses show that salaried GPs - defined in the report as those who made a tax return which itself showed more employed than self-employed income - had average total (pre-tax) earnings of £46,900.

The report is here.

A more detailed report will be published in early 2008.

1. The Information Centre (The IC) is England's authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with more than 300 health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.

2. The data source for the survey is HM Revenue and Customers' (HMRC) tax self assessment database, which covers earnings and expenses from all self-employed professional earnings sources.

3. In 2005/06, there were approximately 33,875 contractor GPs in the UK. The results for salaried GPs are based on a sample of 2,743 GPs who submitted a tax return and whose return showed more employed than self-employed income.

http://www.ic.nhs.uk