GP Earnings and Expenses Estimates 2018/19

• No PMS contracts exist in Wales, so all results shown relate to GMS GPs only.
• Between 2017/18 and 2018/19, income before tax, total expenses and consequently, gross earnings increased for contractor GPs in Wales as a whole.
• Income before tax estimates have increased each year since 2014/15, while average total expenses have been increasing since the time series began in 2002/03.
• When split by dispensing status, both sets of GPs had increases in estimated average income before tax, but for dispensing GPs, total expenses and gross earnings were reduced since 2017/18, though results for that group are based on a small sample and so should be treated with caution.
• Non-dispensing GPs had an 11.8 per cent increase in total expenses and a 10 per cent increase in gross earnings. Despite this, their average total expenses remain considerably lower than those of non-dispensing GPs, which is to be expected since the costs for drugs are included in the total expenses estimates.  

Table 3.1: GMS contractor GPs - average earnings and expenses by dispensing status, Wales, 2017/18 and 2018/19

Median gross earnings, total expenses and income before tax

• Median income before tax, total expenses and gross earnings estimates for Wales Contractor GPs are all lower than the means presented in table 3.1.
• The 2018/19 mean income before tax is £3,300 higher than the median and the mean total expenses is £29,500 higher than the median, indicating that a small number of high-earning GPs are increasing the mean figures. 

Table 3.2: GPMS contractor GPs - median earnings and expenses, Wales, 2017/18 and 2018/19

Breakdown of expenses for contractor GPs

• As was shown in Table 3.1, total expenses for dispensing contractor GPs were £47,700 higher than those of non-dispensing GPs. This difference is largely because of the difference in 'Other' expenses, which includes the costs for drugs. Dispensing GPs' 'Other' expenses were more than three times those of non-dispensers.
• Since 2017/18, average expenses for office and general business and for car and travel decreased for contractor GPs in Wales, while increasing for all other categories. 

Table 3.3: GMS contractor GPs - breakdown of mean expenses by dispensing status, Wales, 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 all increased for salaried GPs in Wales between 2017/18 and 2018/19.
• Though the percentage increases appear large, they are based on a small sample and so should be treated with caution and, in the case of total expenses, equate to a relatively small cash amount.

Table 3.4: GMS salaried GPs - average earnings and expenses, Wales, 2017/18 and 2018/19

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

• The median figures are all lower than the mean figures in Table 3.4, indicating that a small number of salaried GPs on high earnings are increasing the mean estimates.  

Table 3.5: GMS salaried GPs - median earnings and expenses, Wales, 2017/18 and 2018/19

• A 4.3 per cent rise in average income before tax and a 1.2 per cent increase in total expenses resulted in a 2.4 per cent increase in gross earnings for contractor and salaried GPs combined between 2017/18 and 2018/19.

Table 3.6: GMS combined GPs - mean earnings and expenses, Wales, 2017/18 and 2018/19

Median gross earnings, total expenses and income before tax

• As was the case for contractor and salaried GPs separately, the median income before tax estimates are lower than the mean for both years for combined GPs in Wales.

Table 3.7: GMS combined GPs - median income before tax, Wales, 2017/18 and 2018/19