GP Earnings and Expenses Estimates 2018/19

• Between 2017/18 and 2018/19, income before tax, total expenses and consequently, gross earnings increased for both GMS and PMS GPs in Scotland. GPMS income before tax increased by around £8,200 from 2017/18.
• PMS GPs had larger percentage increases in total expenses than their GMS colleagues, while the latter group had the biggest increase in income before tax. The 9.7 per cent rise was larger than the previous year's increase (2.5 per cent) and means the difference between GMS and PMS income before tax estimates for contractor GPs in Scotland is now the smallest it has been since the time series began in 2003/04.

Table 2.1: GPMS contractor GPs - mean earnings and expenses by contract type, Scotland, 2017/18 and 2018/19

Dispensing and non-dispensing GPs

• Gross earnings, total expenses and income before tax averages increased for all groups, regardless of dispensing status.
• Income before tax estimates increased at a greater rate for non-dispensing GPs working at a GMS practice than for GMS dispensing GPs. Conversely, among PMS GPs, those working as dispensing GPs had a greater increase in average income before tax than non-dispensing GPs.

Table 2.2: GPMS dispensing GPs - mean earnings and expenses by contract type, Scotland, 2017/18 and 2018/19

^{Note: 1 Small sample (<125)}

Table 2.3: GPMS non-dispensing contractor GPs - mean earnings and expenses by contract type, Scotland, 2017/18 and 2018/19

Median gross earnings, total expenses and income before tax

• The median figures are all lower than the mean figures in Table 2.1. For GPMS GPs, the 2018/19 mean income before tax is £3,900 higher than the median and the mean total expenses is £15,800 higher than the mean. The higher mean values indicate that there is a relatively small number of contractor GPs with high earnings increasing the mean figures.

Table 2.4: GPMS contractor GPs - median earnings and expenses by contract type, Scotland, 2017/18 and 2018/19

Breakdown of expenses for contractor GPs

• Compared to 2017/18, there were decreases in office and general business expenses for all contract types, as well as interest expenses for GMS and GPMS GPs.
• Net capital allowances decreased slightly for GMS GPs, while all other categories increased.
• Employee expenses were by far the biggest expenses category, accounting for 68.3 per cent of PMS GPs' expenses and 66.9 per cent of the total expenses of GMS GPs.
• Total expenses for PMS GPs were 23.1 per cent higher than the total expenses for GMS GPs.

Table 2.5: GPMS contractor GPs - breakdown of mean expenses by contract type, Scotland, 2018/19

• The average expenses in the ‘Other’ category for dispensing GPs are almost nine times the size of those of non-dispensing doctors. This is the largest variation in expenses categories between the two dispensing types and is to be expected as this category includes the costs for drugs. Largely because of this difference in ‘Other’ expenses, total expenses for dispensing GPs are 83.7 per cent higher than those of non-dispensing GPs.

Table 2.6: GPMS contractor GPs - breakdown of mean expenses by dispensing status, Scotland, 2018/19

Further expenses breakdowns are published in the Excel Time Series, available under Resources on the Overview page.

• Income before tax, total expenses and gross earnings estimates all increased for GPMS salaried GPs between 2017/18 and 2018/19.
• PMS GPs had the highest increase in income before tax, the 15.7 per cent rise from £60,600 to £70,100 putting their average income before tax above that of GMS salaried GPs. At the same time, their total expenses more than halved. However, the estimates for PMS salaried GPs in Scotland are based on a very small sample and so should be treated with caution and the large percentage decrease in expenses equates to a relatively small cash amount.
• Total expenses for GMS salaried GPs in Scotland increased by 15.7 per cent.

Table 2.7: GPMS salaried GPs - mean earnings and expenses by contract type, Scotland, 2017/18 and 2018/19

^{Note: 1 Small sample (<125)}

Median gross earnings, total expenses and income before tax of salaried GPs

• The median figures are all lower than the mean figures in Table 2.7. For GPMS GPs, the mean income before tax is 9.5 per cent higher than the median and the mean total expenses is 187.6 per cent per cent higher than the median. The higher mean values indicate that there is a relatively small number of high-earning salaried GPs increasing the mean figures.

Table 2.8: GPMS salaried GPs - median earnings and expenses by contract type, Scotland, 2017/18 and 2018/19

^{Note: 1 Small sample (<125)}

• When grouping Scotland contractor and salaried GPs together, there were increases in income before tax, total expenses and gross earnings, regardless of contract type.
• The figures for combined GPMS GPs have shown an increase in income before tax each year since 2015/16.

Table 2.9: GPMS combined GPs - mean earnings and expenses by contract type, Scotland, 2017/18 and 2018/19

• As with contractor and salaried GPs separately, median income before tax estimates are all lower than the means presented in Table 2.9, indicating that a relatively small number of high-earning salaried GPs are increasing the mean figures.

Table 2.10: GPMS combined GPs - median income before tax by contract type, Scotland, 2017/18 and 2018/19