Just over a week ago the Scottish Government announced a 3% uplift in pay for all doctors backdated to April. You may well have seen this through the BMA reaction, and the detailed blog from the Chair of Scottish Council Dr Lewis Morrison. This will give you the general position, but of course there is more specifics for GPs – confirmed in the circular issued at the end of last week.
To get into that detail, for GP partners the pay rise will be delivered through a 3.6% uplift to the total contract value that will be delivered in a way so that all practices, including those with an income and expenses guarantee, will benefit from the increase in full.
As you will no doubt be aware, each year the cost of running a practice increases in line with inflation. As with previous years there will be a separate increase (of 1.9% on expenses) to address this and keep pace with costs – as per the CPI measure of inflation.
The GP contract requires additional funding for practices with growing patient lists. This year practices with increasing list sizes will receive a portion of the global additional funding for the increasing population which totals £2.1m.
In addition to these increases, there will be a 4% increase for practice staff to in line with the rise provided to agenda for change staff elsewhere in the NHS. Funding is provided for this through the package outlined, and SGPC would encourage and expect practices to use this to deliver a pay increase to their staff backdated to April 2021, so I would urge you all to do exactly that. This is of course, unless there are extenuating circumstances, for example staff have received pay uplifts greater than the Agenda for Change uplifts since April 2021.
In the circular, GP practices are reminded that GMS contracts and PMS agreements require salaried GPs to be on terms no less favourable than the model Salaried GP contract. This includes pay uplifts each year consistent with the Scottish Government’s decision on the pay of general practitioners, which as outlined is 3% this year.
Of course, this is a complex picture, that will impact on practices differently depending on their own circumstances.
Overall, while viewed in isolation the pay increase is something of an improvement on recent years, in the context of RPI inflation at 3.8% this month – it falls short of what BMA Scotland had been pushing for, which was a rise substantially above inflation.
As such we think it will do very little to address the low morale we know many GPs are feeling – as indeed are doctors across the NHS. But it’s equally important we know what you think – which is why we will be surveying all members to gather views.
We know how tough things are for you at the moment – with constant demands from all sides. And that comes after all you have done in the pandemic – keeping practices open, adapting the way you worked almost overnight, staffing Covid Centres and playing a leading role in the delivery of the vaccination programme. That is why, at this moment, we feel this pay rise doesn’t send that crucial signal to doctors that they are truly and tangibly valued – beyond hand claps and warm words.
That is why this the BMA believe this year’s pay award is such a missed opportunity. Of course, the issues we face go far beyond pay; we still worryingly lack any comprehensive plan of action on recruitment and retention of the workforce. But even with wider action it is inescapable that doctors, and aspiring doctors, need to feel truly valued, and that includes a genuine reversal of many years of pay erosion we have experienced, something that following this year’s pay award, we are all still waiting to see happen.
Patricia Moultrie is the Deputy chair of the SGPC
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