Ripon Spa Surgery

GP earnings 2018/19

All GP practices are required to declare the mean earnings (e.g. average pay) for GPs working to deliver NHS services to patients at each practice, the required disclosure is shown below.

The average pay for GPs working in Ripon Spa Surgery in the last financial year was £44,271 before tax and National Insurance. This is for 5 part time GP’s who worked in the practice for more than six months.

However, it should be noted that the prescribed method for calculating earnings is potentially misleading because it takes no account of how much time doctors spend working in the practice, and should not be used to form any judgment about GP earnings, nor to make any comparison with any other practice.

General Practice Finances
The government requires financial transparency from practices as recipients of NHS money. Rather than present the minimal figures required we thought it would be interesting to put some figures in context.

Overview
Nationally, General Practice receives 8.1% of the money spent on the NHS — for every £10 spent GP services receive 81p—and with this General Practices deliver 90% of the patient care in the NHS. General Practices are mostly small, independent businesses which operate as contractors to the NHS. Ripon Spa Surgery 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 work here.

The Surgery
The Surgery holds a ‘General Medical Services’ contract with the NHS which enables us to look after our list of just over 7000 patients. Our total NHS income under this contract last year was £926,830. Three quarters of this is paid as a capitation, in proportion to our list size, and the rest is contingent on achieving certain clinical and administrative targets.

About 70% of this income is spent on the costs of running the practice, primarily paying the employed staff. We pay at least the Living Wage to all our employees. Partners’ drawings are taken when all the expenses of the practice have been met, and so vary from month to month. Very roughly, the surgery provides 33,000 consultations per year with doctors (both face-to-face and by telephone) and just over 14,000 appointments with nurses, giving a cost to the NHS of approximately £20 per consultation. In comparison, a single outpatient appointment in hospital costs the NHS between £85 and £200.

The Future
Over the past 8 years practice income has increased well below the rate of inflation, while expenses have, of course, risen. This has meant that while spending on the NHS as a whole has risen, the proportion of that money coming to general practice has dropped significantly and continues to fall. A political campaign is underway to try to reverse this trend. We have tried hard over recent years to maintain or improve the level of care we provide, but as it becomes increasingly difficult to do this the ongoing support of our patients is vital, and very much appreciated.