Exclusive Out-of-hours GPs may not receive the 6% pay rise recommended by DDRB this year, as providers struggle with rising costs and insufficient funding.
Out-of-hours (OOH) providers in England have told Pulse that ‘a lot of GPs’ will receive ‘no pay increase’ and that their current funding means granting pay uplifts to staff is a ‘challenge’.
The BMA has raised similar concerns, highlighting that OOH providers have not received ‘sufficient’ funding to cover staff pay increases and that many are ‘already struggling’ with ‘increasing’ costs and expenses due to ‘significant’ inflation.
Earlier this year, the Government accepted the recommendations of the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) for a 6% increase ‘to the salary scales, pay ranges and the pay element of contracts’ for GP partners, salaried GPs and practice staff, and the Government promised to increase the global sum for GMS practices by 7.4%.
But the out-of-hours deduction within the core contract remained at 4.75%, which in ‘absolute terms’ meant it increased from £4.97 to £5.34 to align with the total 7.4% uplift.
However, out-of-hours providers are funded differently to GP practices, and have not received the same funding uplift to pass pay rises to staff.
Urgent Health UK (UHUK), a partnership of almost 30 urgent primary care providers covering 65% of the country’s population, said there is a need to ‘fill the gap’ in funding between GP practices and other providers.
UHUK chair Dr Simon Abrams told Pulse: ‘To a great extent, it’s the same staff and it’s about equity, and the staff definitely deserve it.
‘For all of the providers working for UHUK – and I’m sure it’s the same for others – it’s a challenge to provide those pay rises to staff and then sustain services with the budget that’s left.’
He added: ‘On an equity basis we’d hope that ICBs would make sure that when they’re having that discussion with services that they’re taking into account that the OOH services need to provide that uplift to staff, which they definitely deserve.’
Dr Fay Wilson, executive chair of Badger, an OOH provider covering Birmingham and Solihull, told Pulse that providers such as hers are only eligible for the ‘standard NHS uplift’ which is ‘0.6% net’ for 2024/25, and they are ‘almost always excluded’ from the additional funding provided by Government for doctor pay rises.
She said: ‘Many if not most OOH organisations will not receive this uplift. I know one that will receive an even lower uplift than we will.
‘ICBs will say they are spending more than the opt-out charge on providing OOH, which they are.
‘Sadly it means a lot of GPs will receive no pay increase as any money has gone to lower paid or living wage workers and utility companies.’
The BMA’s GP Committee England chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer pointed out that OOH GPs ‘work in challenging conditions’ and that it is ‘unacceptable’ that they may not receive a pay rise ‘yet again’ this year.
She stressed that all salaried GPs, including those working in OOH settings, should receive the DDRB’s recommended 6% pay rise.
She said: ‘However, for many GP out-of-hours service providers, who are already struggling with increasing costs and expenses due to significant inflation, the Government’s plan for the DDRB uplift fails to provide sufficient funding to cover staff pay increases.
‘They work in challenging conditions and receive insufficient funding, not helped by unnecessarily duplicated efforts from services such as NHS 111 and urgent care centres, while delivering essential care to patients in urgent need.’
The BMA has recently warned that GP practices may struggle too, and that they ‘may be forced’ to use funds from the DDRB uplift to cover expenses or repay overdrafts instead of passing them on to staff.
Pulse has approached NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.
Earlier this year, a number of OOH GPs in Wales successfully recouped costs for holiday pay after challenging their status as ‘self-employed’, which they believe ‘deprived’ them of key employment rights.
