FAMILY doctors in Scotland may abandon the country if pay is not improved, their leaders warned yesterday, as figures showed they earned £20,000 a year less than their colleagues in England.
On average, Scottish GPs have a net income of just under £83,000 a year - the lowest in the UK, according to data from the Information Centre. In England, average income was £103,564, in Wales it was £91,588 and in Northern Ireland £91,151.
The f
igures show earnings have risen since a new contract was introduced in 2004, but the deal has failed to close the gap between GPs in Scotland and those in the rest of the UK.
The British Medical Association (BMA) Scotland warned that, with Scottish doctors earning about 25 per cent less than English GPs, the country might have trouble attracting and retaining the family doctors needed to serve the population.
Dr Dean Marshall, chairman of the BMA's Scottish GPs committee, said it had been estimated Scotland would need an additional 750 GPs by 2012 in order to maintain the service at its current levels. "If the earnings gap between Scotland and the rest of the UK is not addressed as a matter of urgency, then it is unlikely that Scotland will be able to recruit and retain the GPs it needs," he said.
"We are not suggesting £83,000 is not a lot of money, but GPs are paid appropriately for the responsibility they take."
Dr Marshall said GPs in Scotland were disadvantaged under a system in which pay is decided by the number of patients on a doctor's list, regardless of the number of times each patient has a consultation.
"We have higher levels of poor health in Scotland ... so a patient may visit many times without that being recognised in the pay we receive. We do need to review how general practice is funded," he said.
GP pay has entered the spotlight in recent years, with reports that some doctors are earning £250,000 or more a year. But yesterday's report found only a small minority of UK GPs - 0.5 per cent - were earning in excess of £250,000.
In addition to NHS pay, the figures also take into account any other earnings, including private work. Across the UK, average pay was £100,170 in 2004-5 - an increase of 22.8 per cent on the previous year, before the contract was introduced.
Earlier this year, the BMA warned doctors in Scotland could start closing their doors to new patients after a UK-wide GP pay freeze for two years running.
Margaret Watt, of the Scottish Patients' Association, said it seemed like doctors in Scotland were being treated like "second-class citizens".
The Scottish Executive said: "All self-employed GPs in the UK have the same terms and conditions. Average net income is lower in Scotland because there are proportionately more GPs in Scotland than England, with smaller patient lists. Funding per patient is comparable between Scotland and England."
