GP Earnings and Expenses Estimates, 2020/21

Arrangements in place between April 2020 and March 2021

The Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) was partially suspended for 2020/21.  Payments for suspended indicators were paid based either on 2018/19 achievement levels or paid in full, adjusted for changes in point value. Indicators related to pandemic related priorities remained active.

Both the Minor Surgery Direct Enhanced Service (DES) and the Violent Patients Scheme DES were suspended and payment protected based upon previous year’s achievement.

Between April and October 2020, the PCN Investment and Impact Fund (IIF) was suspended and funding diverted into a ‘PCN support payment’. Between October 2020 and March 2021, the PCN IIF was limited to 6 vaccination linked indicators.

Practices were also paid for working four of the Bank Holiday days at Easter and May.

Arrangements in place between November 2020 and March 2021

Around 56% of the first doses in the initial phases of the Covid Vaccination programme were delivered via General Practice which will have increased practice income and may have impacted average contractor GP net earnings too.  Practices were required to work in groupings (mostly in line with their existing PCN group) and the nature of the vaccines in the early stage of the programme required complex logistics for delivery of the vaccinations, often involving separate premises and additional call/recall processes. This will also have required additional admin/management support, primarily at a PCN level.  Additional staff were often taken on by PCNs to help staff in the vaccination hubs, which varied from paid positions to voluntary roles, depending on local decisions. One-off funding was made available to cover many additional costs in this regard.

It seems likely that more of the Covid vaccination programme was delivered by GPs in England than in the Wales and Scotland and this could explain some of the difference between the increases in GP contractor income in England compared to Wales and Scotland. However, in Northern Ireland GPs delivered a similar amount of the vaccination programme to England.

Some salaried GPs may have held more than one role, and their income during the pandemic may have reduced for other roles they held such as being an appraiser, which were paused in March 2020, and began to be reintroduced from October 2020.

Expenses may have fallen for GMS salaried GPs due to the reductions in travel, spend on training courses and - potentially - also reduced costs for medical equipment.

Table 1.1: GPMS contractor GPs - mean earnings, expenses and income before tax by contract type, England, 2019/20 and 2020/21

^Note:

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

Dispensing and non-dispensing GPs

Table 1.2: GPMS dispensing contractor GPs - mean earnings, expenses and income before tax by contract type, England, 2019/20 and 2020/21

^Note:

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

Table 1.3: GPMS non-dispensing contractor GPs - mean earnings, expenses and income before tax by contract type, England, 2019/20 and 2020/21

^Note:

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

Median gross earnings, total expenses and income before tax

Table 1.4: GPMS contractor GPs - median earnings, expenses and income before tax by contract type, England, 2019/20 and 2020/21

^Note:

^{1. The median figures are lower then the mean figures in Table 1.1. The higher mean values indicate that there is a relatively small number of high-earning contractor GPs increasing the mean figures.}

Breakdown of expenses for contractor GPs

Table 1.5: GPMS contractor GPs - breakdown of mean expenses by contract type, England, 2020/21

Table 1.6: GPMS contractor GPs - breakdown of mean expenses by dispensing status, England, 2020/21

^Note:

^{1.Further expenses breakdowns are published in the Excel Time Series, available under Resources on the Overview page.}

Table 1.7: GPMS salaried GPs - mean earnings, expenses and income before tax by contract type, England, 2019/20 and 2020/21

^Note:

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

Table 1.8: GPMS salaried GPs - median earnings, expenses and income before tax by contract type, England, 2019/20 and 2020/21

^Note:

^{1. The median figures are all lower than the mean figures in Table 1.7. The higher mean values indicate that there is a relatively small number of high-earning salaried GPs increasing the mean figures.}

Table 1.9: GPMS combined GPs - mean earnings, expenses and income before tax by contract type, England, 2019/20 and 2020/21

^Note:

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

Table 1.10: GPMS combined GPs - median income before tax by contract type, England, 2019/20 and 2020/21

^Note:

^{1. The median figures are all lower than the mean figures in Table 1.9. The higher mean values indicate that there is a relatively small number of high-earning salaried GPs increasing the mean figures.}