GP Earnings and Expenses Estimates 2019/20

Payments to contractor GPs in Northern Ireland in 2018/19 did not receive the recommended uplift in time to be reflected in their earnings for that financial year. Instead, the uplifts for both 2018/19 and 2019/20 are reflected in the contractor GP income in this year’s figures. This means that the decreases seen in 2018/19 will be partially attributable to the delays to funding in that year, while some of the 2019/20 increases will be because two years of uplift were paid in the same year.

Table 4.1: GMS contractor GPs - mean earnings and expenses by dispensing status, Northern Ireland, 2018/19 and 2019/20

^{Notes: 1. Statistical significance relates only to the fact of a year-on-year change in income before tax. See 'Statistical significance explained'.}

^{2. Further expenses breakdowns are published in the Excel Time Series, available under Resources on the Overview page.}

^{3. Results for dispensing GPs are suppressed due to low sample numbers.}

Median gross earnings, total expenses and income before tax

Table 4.2: GMS contractor GPs - median earnings and expenses, Northern Ireland, 2018/19 and 2019/20

^{Note: The median figures are all lower than the mean figures in Table 4.1 which indicates that there is a relatively small number of contractor GPs with high earnings increasing the mean figures.}

Breakdown of expenses for contractor GPs

Table 4.3: GMS contractor GPs - breakdown of mean expenses by dispensing status, Northern Ireland, 2019/20

^{Note: 1. Results for dispensing GPs are suppressed due to small sample sizes and so comparisons between dispensers and non-dispensers are not possible.}

^{2. Further expenses breakdowns are published in the Excel Time Series, available under Resources on the Overview page.}

Table 4.4: GMS salaried GPs - mean earnings and expenses, Northern Ireland, 2018/19 and 2019/20

^{Notes: 1.Statistical significance relates only to the fact of a year-on-year change in income before tax. See 'Statistical significance explained'.}

^{2. Small sample (<125). Though the Total Expenses percentage decrease appears large, it is based on a small sample and equates to a relatively small cash amount, so should be treated with caution.}

Median gross earnings, total expenses and income before tax

Table 4.5: GMS Salaried GPs - median earnings and expenses, Northern Ireland, 2018/19 and 2019/20

^{Notes: 1. Small sample (<125).}

^{2. The median figures are all lower than the mean figures in Table 4.4, indicating that a small number of salaried GPs on high earnings are increasing the mean estimates.}

Table 4.6: GMS combined GPs - mean earnings and expenses, Northern Ireland, 2018/19 and 2019/20

^{Notes: 1.Statistical significance relates only to the fact of a year-on-year change in income before tax. See 'Statistical significance explained'.}

^{2. Perhaps because contractor GPs account for the majority of the Northern Ireland GP report population, the year-on-year changes in earnings and expenses estimates for contractor and salaried GPs combined are similar to those of contractor GPs alone.}

Table 4.7: GMS Combined GPs - median income before tax, Northern Ireland, 2018/19 and 2019/20 

^{Note: 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 Northern Ireland.}