GP in England are to receive a 4% pay rise, the Government has announced after it said it has accepted the ‘headline pay’ recommendations from the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB).
And a 4% increase to the pay element of the GP contract will also be applied to allow for a similar pay uplift to be passed on to all salaried practice staff.
Pay increases will be backdated to April 1, with the aim for increases to be made from August.
Other awards announced, include:
- a 4% uplift to the minimum and maximum of the pay range for salaried GPs and to the GP educators pay scale by 4% all on a consolidated basis;
- a 4% increase to pay points for doctors in training plus a consolidated payment of £750
- Agenda for Change staff to receive a 3.6% increase, also backdated to April 1.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said this means all NHS workers will receive real terms pay rises for the second year in a row.
He also said in a statement to Parliament today that he ‘hugely appreciates the work of so many talented staff across the NHS’.
‘Accepting these recommendations gives them the pay rise they deserve,’ he added.
The Government had previously said in its submission to the DDRB that it had set aside funding to offer GPs a maximum 2.8% pay rise for 2025/26.
However, today it said that rises above 2.8% were made possible because of ‘reforms already being made to cut waste and unnecessary bureaucracy’ in the NHS. These include bringing ICB costs down by 50% and abolishing NHS England.
Meanwhile, the same pay recommendations for GPs and doctors in training have also been accepted in Wales.
Jeremy Miles, cabinet secretary for health and social care in Wales, said in a statement that ‘the recommended 4% pay uplift for contracted GPs and dentists will be taken alongside overall contract agreement in tripartite negotiations, which are due to commence shortly’.
He added that while it fell outside the scope of DDRB recommendations, the Welsh Government wants ‘to see a fair and proportionate pay uplift across primary care, including community pharmacies, NHS optometry and all staff working in general practice and dental teams’.
The BMA has described said the pay uplift for doctors as ‘wholly inadequate’ and was sub-inflationary.
Chair of the BMA council, Professor Philip Banfield, said that GP practices are facing ‘an absurd situation’ where a significant portion of new funding from the Government, ‘at least £187m’, will be spent on increased National Insurance tax and National and Minimum living wages.
He said: ‘This means a large amount of new funding is going straight back to the Treasury, not leaving enough to uplift practice staff salaries, let alone recruit more GPs. We are seeing GPs unable to get a job as patients are desperate to see a family doctor.
‘Salaried GPs, who make up more than half of the family doctors working in practices in England, have experienced similar pay erosion to hospital doctors and today’s announcement does nothing to address their pay issues.
Professor Banfield also said: ‘The failure of both the DDRB and the Government to recognise the need to recruit and retain doctors with pay and conditions that enable them to use their expertise to treat more patients sends a clear message to the profession: we do not need you, we do not want to keep you.’
