Government only able to afford 2.5% GP pay rise next year, DDRB told

The Government has told the independent doctors’ pay review body that it is currently allowing for a 2.5% pay rise for GPs for the next financial year.

In its evidence to the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB), the Government said that they have developed financial plans which ‘currently’ allow for a pay uplift of 2.5% ‘without having to make trade-offs’ against its health commitments.

The evidence said: ‘Should the independent pay review bodies recommend an award above this level, we would need to consider whether and how this could be made affordable from within existing DHSC budgets. Accepting such an award would inevitably have an impact on healthcare delivery.’

The DDRB was asked to make a recommendation on GP partner pay for the first time in five years for 2024/25, noting the ‘significant’ cost increases they had faced over the last few years, and partners have since been included in the remit.

Health secretary Wes Streeting wrote in July to DDRB to formally commence the annual pay review for 2026/27.

He asked DDRB chair Mark Hoble to start the process earlier than usual to allow the review body ‘to give due consideration to the relevant evidence’ and to return to ‘more timely annual pay processes’.

The BMA said that at a time when GPs cannot get jobs and resident doctors are struggling to secure training posts, the suggestion for a 2.5% pay rise is ‘frankly indefensible’.

BMA council chair Dr Tom Dolphin said: ‘It is frankly indefensible that yet another Government is once again suggesting real-terms pay cut for doctors – an increase of less than 50p per hour [a 2.5% uplift on the first-year resident doctor hourly rate of £18.62 equates to £19.09 per hour – an uplift of 47p] for many newly-qualified doctors.

‘After more than a decade of pay erosion, spiralling workloads, and an NHS in a state of near chaos, this is a deliberate choice to devalue those who hold the health service together, a profound disregard for our doctors and the state of the profession.

‘This is not responsible governance; it is a calculated decision to let a vital profession bear the cost of political failure. Each sub-inflation offer pushes more doctors to leave the NHS or the country altogether, and it is patients who ultimately pay the price for this foolishness.

‘At time when so many resident doctors are struggling to secure training posts and GPs cannot get jobs— a shocking waste of talent in a system that is chronically short of staff – we have ministers who think it is acceptable to pay the doctors we do have an insult, rather than a decent wage.

‘The Government’s failure to provide fair pay, adequate positions for doctors in training, and jobs for GPs exposes a complete lack of long-term planning or respect for the profession.’

Last year the DDRB was also asked to deliver its recommendation ‘at the earliest point’ to help speed up pay awards for the current financial year. 

For 2025/26 the Government committed to ‘uplifting the pay element of the GP contract’ by 4% following DDRB recommendations, uplifting the minimum and maximum of the pay range for salaried GPs by 4% and uplifting the GP educators pay scale by 4% ‘all on a consolidated basis’.