Government asks DDRB to make recommendation on GP partner pay uplift

The Government has asked the independent pay review body for a recommendation on a GP partner pay uplift for the first time in five years.

Since 2019, GP partners have been locked into a five-year contract deal that aimed for a 2% year-on-year partner pay rise, meaning they were excluded from the remit of the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB).

Now, in a letter to the DDRB chair Christopher Pilgrim, health and social care secretary Victoria Atkins invited the review body to make recommendations on an annual pay award for all doctors and dentists, including contractor GPs, for 2024/25.

She said: ‘Independent contractor general medical practitioners are no longer subject to a five-year pay agreement between NHS England and the BMA.

‘We invite you to make recommendations on uplifts for General Medical Practitioner contractors.

‘As always, while your remit covers the whole of the United Kingdom, it is for each administration to make its own decisions on its approach to this year’s pay round and to communicate this to you directly.

‘I would like to thank you again for your and the DDRB’s invaluable contribution to the pay round and look forward to receiving your report for 2024 to 2025 in due course.’

Pulse revealed exclusively last week that the BMA’s GP committee for England is working on being allowed to submit evidence to DDRB, against the BMA’s policy of disengagement.

The BMA Council is due to meet on 27 December and will discuss whether to allow the GPC to proceed with making a submission.

The GPC is determined that it must take the opportunity to submit evidence on how that contract deal has ‘not kept pace’ with the economy since then and the current struggles in general practice.

However, the BMA withdrew from the DDRB process in 2021, in protest at the body’s lack of independence from the Government and ‘a decade of derisory pay uplifts’.

GPC England chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer told Pulse that it is ‘vital’ that following the end of the 2019-24 multi-year contract deal, GMS contractors in England can revert to submitting evidence to the DDRB process.

She said: ‘GPCE has prepared and submitted detailed papers for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England around the impact of inflation on the devaluation of the GMS contract, together with evidence around wider pressures on wages, utilities and costs of living.

‘GPCE’s finance survey open until 2 January may also complement such papers with quantifiable evidence from a percentage of practices across England.

‘Such data may similarly help inform DDRB’s decisions for 2024/25 but do not diminish the importance of DHSC and NHSE stabilising GMS from April in next year’s so-called “stepping stone” contract.

‘Furthermore, any DDRB position on recommendation of other GP staff expenses needs to come fully funded. At present the other staff expenses element of the Global Sum sits at 44%, which we believe to be a significant underestimate of practice costs.’

It comes as comes as the Government last month agreed to an overhaul of the workings of the DDRB as part of an offer made to the BMA to end consultant strikes.

The Government committed to a review that will examine the appointments of members to the DDRB, the timing of the round, remit letters and terms of reference, and the data provided to the body on which it bases its recommendations, with changes to be implemented for the 2025/26 financial year.

Ms Atkins added: ‘As you will be aware, the Government has recently been involved in talks with various medical groups. In the case of consultants, this has resulted in an offer around pay scale reform that has been put to members.

‘This offer does not affect the pay award consultants received this financial year and should not interfere with your recommendations for 2024 to 2025. In the case of ongoing talks, these should also not impact on your recommendations.’

In July, the Government accepted the DDRB pay uplift recommendation and announced that NHS staff in England would get a 6% pay increase, including salaried GPs and trainees but not GP partners.