GMB Warns On Top NHS Pay
Friday 11th
February 2011
GMB WARNS THAT
ALREADY WELL PAID GPs WILL AWARD
THEMSELVES EVEN HIGHER PAY IF NHS BILL
GIVES GP'S RESPONSIBILITY FOR NHS BUDGETS
Salary levels for GPs will
escalate towards stratospheric levels as in the USA when they are
put in charge of NHS cash says GMB
GMB, the union for health service
staff, has expressed fears that when responsibility for £80 billion
of NHS is handed over to GP's without any evidence that this will
improve patient care or outcomes that pay for GP will balloon. The
Health and Social Care Bill before Parliament scraps Primary Care
Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities and replaces them with GP
consortia. GPs will then be free to set their own incomes.
GP incomes are already between 2.61
and 3.36 times average earnings for all full time workers in
regions. This is according to new data published last month by
Department of Heath. The Income data for GP practices for each
region in England compared with average earnings in that region are
set out in the table below.
GMB fear that Government's plans will
reward GP's by giving them control over procuring secondary care.
There are real fears that the toxic combination of cash incentives
and real-time cuts in government health spending will put pressure
on GP's to prioritise cost over quality, procuring the cheapest
services or even not referring patients on to secondary care at
all.
Hospitals will feel the sharp end of
this knife as they are forced to compete between themselves and the
private sector to procure those services.
Earlier this week eight leading
health charities have joined the chorus of concern over the health
and social care bill, warning that "crucial changes" are needed to
ensure it gives patients a bigger say on local services. The heads
of charities including the British Heart Foundation, the
Alzheimer's Society and the mental health charity Rethink
highlighted what they say is a gap between "rhetoric and reality"
over plans to put patient involvement and democratic accountability
at the centre of the health system. The chiefs of the charities say
current plans in the Bill to make GPs accountable to the public are
"far too weak".
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Table 1d: Earnings and
Expenses - General Medical Practitioners 2008/09
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|
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Strategic Health
Authorities
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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Gross Earnings
|
Total expenses
|
Income of individual GP before tax
|
Average UK full-time gross
earnings
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GP's salary times larger than UK
average
|
|
|
North East
|
£207,300
|
£112,300
|
£95,000
|
£31,900
|
2.98
|
|
|
North West
|
£223,400
|
£125,700
|
£97,700
|
£31,900
|
3.06
|
|
|
Yorkshire & Humber
|
£252,300
|
£147,500
|
£104,800
|
£31,900
|
3.29
|
|
|
East Midlands
|
£256,700
|
£149,500
|
£107,100
|
£31,900
|
3.36
|
|
|
West Midlands
|
£236,400
|
£131,900
|
£104,600
|
£31,900
|
3.28
|
|
|
Eastern
|
£254,500
|
£149,300
|
£105,200
|
£31,900
|
3.30
|
|
|
London
|
£236,100
|
£136,300
|
£99,800
|
£31,900
|
3.13
|
|
|
South East Coast
|
£241,100
|
£138,100
|
£103,000
|
£31,900
|
3.23
|
|
|
South Central
|
£228,500
|
£132,400
|
£96,100
|
£31,900
|
3.01
|
|
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South West
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£205,900
|
£122,800
|
£83,100
|
£31,900
|
2.61
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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Rehana Azam, GMB National Officer
said, "The Government promised the
electorate that the NHS would be safe from cuts. However, this Bill
if implemented it will tear the health service apart.
The proposed
legislation introduces a potential conflict of interest with GP
Fund Holders having the possibility of putting their own Funds
before the needs of patients. It opens the door to GPs helping
themselves to even larger amounts of public money to go into their
own pockets and there is little in the Bill to stop
them.
The Tory/Liberal coalition
government is entirely to blame for this as it is they who are
bringing forward this Bill. It wants to dismantle
and cut the NHS by the back door. The plan is to pay GPs to do its
dirty work. With nurses wages going down due to inflation, the Bill
threatens to create an 'us' and 'them' culture in healthcare,
fuelling resentment, disputes and dissent.
There is a proven track record
of top people paying themselves higher incomes as soon as they get
control of the money. It happens in the privatised water, gas and
electricity sectors as it happens in the banks. Salary levels of
GPs are likely to escalate towards the stratospheric levels we see
in the USA.
This is not what the people of
this country want. Good health care is delivered by teams from the
cleaner to the consultant. Increased pay for GPs will be at the
expense of the rest of the NHS staff and patient care will
suffer.
The Bill is meeting serious
opposition. GMB among others is challenging areas of the Bill. If
health service staff has any say in the matter the Bill will not go
through in its entirety. GMB members prefer to retain the
accountability structures rather than see GP Consortia being put in
charge."
Ends
Contact: Rehana
Azam, GMB National Officer on 07841 181656 of GMB Press Office:
Steve Pryle on 07921 289880 or Rose Conroy on 07974 251823.
Notes To Editors:
Source and definitions:
1 Copyright 2011, The Health and
Social Care Information Centre. All rights reserved. The figures
are for the incomes of GPs who are contractors to the NHS and the
incomes of salaried GPs employed by the NHS.
2 GP Earnings and Expenses 2008/09
Final Report, Publication date: January 12, 2011. The latest GP
Earnings and Expenses Enquiry provide a detailed study of the
earnings and expenses of both contractor and salaried GPs in the UK
in 2008/09. Results are based on data from HM Revenue and Customs'
tax self assessment database. The figures are for those GP's
working in the NHS under a General Medical Services (GMS) or
Personal Medical Services (PMS) contract.
A GMS practice is one that has a
standard, nationally negotiated contract. Within this there is some
local flexibility for GPs to 'opt out' of certain services or 'opt
in' to the provision of other services. The PMS contract was
introduced in 1998 in England and Scotland (as the section 17c
agreement) as a local alternative to the national GMS contract. PMS
contracts are voluntary, locally negotiated contracts between
Primary Care Organisations (PCOs) and the PMS Provider, enabling,
for example, flexible provision of services in accordance with
specific local circumstances.
Earnings and expenses information are
based on a sample from HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC's) tax
self-assessment database, as at April 2010.
GPs can perform both NHS and private
work which can be done both inside and outside the practice,
including the NHS Out of Hours service. GPs will usually submit a
self assessment return which contains information on all of their
self-employment earnings, including both NHS and private earnings
while practising as a GP, with the accounting year ending in the
tax year covered by the return. Therefore, the results include
earnings and expenses relating to both NHS and private work.
Gross earnings include income before
the deduction of expenses (i.e. turnover); expenses are business
expenses allowable for tax purposes, e.g. premises and staff costs;
income before tax is taxable (or net) income, made up of gross
earnings less expenses.