Around 1,000 doctors are paid at least £200,000 a year, despite the average wage for GPs continuing to fall.
Contracted GPs earned an average £105,300 during 2008-09, the third year in a row in which salaries have fallen.
The figures from the NHS Information Centre include fulltime and part-time doctors for both the NHS and the private sector.
Most GPs, a total of 14,020 or 42% of them, were paid £50,000-£100,000.
A rate of 38%, or 12,820, received £100,000-£150,000, while 10% (3,280) were paid £150,000-£200,000.
However, a pay packet of £200,000-£250,000 was given to 2% of GPs, or 700 of them.
A total of 250 (0.8%) were paid more than £250,000.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “While there has been an overall decrease in GPs’ earnings, we must ensure better value for money from the overall investment in the GP contract, and make sure resources are used to the greatest benefits of patients and the taxpayer.
“The coalition government recently announced a two-year pay freeze for all NHS staff earning more than £21k a year.”
The government said it is considering how the wages of groups such as GPs and dentists can also be frozen.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
Your comments (terms and conditions apply):
“GPs do not receive paypackets from the government they receive their income on a patient capitation basis plus the results of QOF and enhanced services. The money follows the patient, not the GP” – Carol Wotherspoon, High Wycombe
“£100,000 does not seem to me to be an excessive wage given the workload and responsibillity most GPs carry but much over that and I would query the value for money. Reaction to these figures needs to be measured, however, otherwise we risk a mass exodus from the profession. Medical degrees take a lot of work and the ongoing responsibilities are high. It is right they are properly paid. Working in one of the most deprived practices in the country and hitting targets I do not begrudge the earnings of our GPS – work does not stop when they leave the surgery. Constant sniping in the media and hysterics over a relativly few high earners may put the brightest off studying medicines – I wonder how much the average journalist earns vis a vis their public utility?” – Name and address withheld
