Doctors' and Dentists' Pay: Review Body's Supplementary Recommendation (Hansard, 13 February 2001)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)

I am responding on behalf of my right honourable friend the Prime Minister to the supplementary report of the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration (DDRB). I understand that a similar announcement has been made by the First Minister and the Minister for Health and Community Care in Scotland. Copies of the reports are available in the Printed Paper Office and the Library. We are grateful to the chairman and members of the DDRB for their hard work.

We announced on 18 December that the pay recommendations of the DDRB were being accepted in full and without staging. The DDRB recommended an overall pay increase of 3.9 per cent for salaried doctors and dentists and general medical and dental practitioners.

To encourage the retention of general medical practitioners, the DDRB has also recommended a 7 per cent increase in seniority allowances, worth in the region of £500 for a general medical practitioner with 25 years' service. This is in addition to the 3.9 per cent increase in intended average net remuneration.

The supplementary report from the DDRB covers areas of GPs income aimed at meeting the expense of running their practices and any balancing recovery from debts owed by the profession. In its considerations of what provision to make for indirectly reimbursed practice expenses and the operation of the balancing correction, the review body has recommended:

provision for indirect expenses of £23,790 for each GP;

a recovery of £248 per GP in accordance with normal rules; and

a joint review by the BMA and Health Departments of the operation of the pay system.

This should look at handling the cumulative overpayment that has occurred in the system (£2,684 per GP), the operation of the balancing mechanism and forecasting of expenses in time for next year's round.

The Government have accepted DDRB's recommendation on the level of practice expenses.

The Government share DDRB's concerns about the operation of the balancing mechanism, the setting of 32WA practice expenses and the management of the cumulative debt. We have decided that the BMA and the Health Departments should put work in hand immediately to develop a review of these issues. That being the case, the Government have decided to suspend the balancing mechanism pending the outcome of the review.

The average GP will benefit by a further £248 above what the DDRB have recommended. In addition, we will consider constructively how to manage the cumulative debt of the profession (around £80 million) for the benefit of patients and the development of practices.

DDRB also recommended that urgent agreement was needed on flu vaccination payments. Higher payments to GPs were introduced in last autumn's campaign to increase vaccination coverage of people aged 65 and over. We now propose that the whole cost of these payments, not just the proportion relating to the extra coverage achieved, should remain available for investment in general practice.

The gross income of GPs will therefore increase to £80,300 pa, as shown in the following table, with effect from 1 April 2001.

	2000	2001
	(£)	(£)
1. IANI (includes 2001 seniority increase)	54,220	56,510
2. Expenses Provision	24,510	23,790
3. IANI plus Expenses (1 + 2)	78,730	80,300
4. Balancing recovery	(261)	(248)
		Suspended
5. IAGI (3 + 4)	78,469	80,300