GP Salary and Contract negotiation

Salary and contract negotiations for GPs

We are going to outline some broad information to help you understand the salary and contract negotiation process as a GP. This will make the process of negotiating and understanding when negotiating is appropriate a lot easier.

Geography

The first thing worth mentioning is that there can be huge discrepancies on the income of salaried GPs depending on a number of factors. Unlike other sectors, salaries aren’t nationally standardised and will vary significantly; this is often contingent on geography and workload.

Market rates are typically determined by how competitive it is to attract GPs to the area and the surgeries. Salaries are typically higher in more rural coastal areas where there are fewer GPs.

Geography should help determine roughly what you might expect to earn as a newly qualified GP, however, there are other factors as well such as workload. We conduct a national salary survey every year outlining average workloads, salary and partner drawings. You can request a copy of our 2024 survey, here.

What can you expect to be paid as a newly-qualified GP?

If you find yourself looking for a role, and you’re not working with us, here’s some practical advice on understanding market ‘norms’:

Discuss with your GP Trainer, peers and friends. All will have a different perspective on this depending on whereabouts in their career they are and their special interests.

Look at local adverts. This will give you a rough idea of what Practices are offering in the area you’d like to work in

Be realistic! Know the rough market value of your area by doing your research, this will help with negotiations. Don’t compare your salary to colleagues working in different areas. Practices most likely won’t pay you their top rates straight out of training!

Ask about Pay rises. Some practices will implement pay rises automatically in line with the dentists and doctors review body, some practices will offer a pay rise after you successfully pass your probation period. Understand this upfront and it can avoid awkward conversations down the line!

Negotiations

There is more than one side to a negotiation, and this will typically involve some give and take. Remember to be reasonable and be prepared to compromise on your non-deal breaking points.

While your acceptance is excellent leverage when negotiating, this should never be done in bad faith. Don’t negotiate unless you genuinely intend to accept the role. General Practice is a very small world and you never know when you might be looking for a role again, don’t burn your bridges.

Make sure you don’t compare your offer/salary with a friend’s who works in a different area. For example, a newly-qualified GP in Birmingham might be paid £10,000 per session, whereas up to £12,000 per session in Lincolnshire can be the ‘norm’!

Try and avoid seeking out and accepting an offer based purely on the highest salary you can find. We have a phrase for this in recruitment and it’s ‘golden handcuffs’, where you can end up tied to a job you don’t like, with nowhere else to go, unless you take a pay cut, because you’re already being paid above market rate.