GPs paid £100 an hour for new NHS duties

The rate for roles commissioning services is equivalent to around £180,000 a year – more than the annual pay for most NHS chief executives.

Doctors in North Lincolnshire are being paid the highest £100 an hour fee which is twice as much as in neighbouring Doncaster.

Across the region, rates vary significantly for duties on new GP commissioning groups, which will each take charge of hundreds of millions of pounds in NHS spending.

Ministers claim their plans for health service reconfiguration will save taxpayers billions of pounds by axing layers of bureaucracy but doubts have already been raised about the likely impact.

Figures show GPs in North Lincolnshire receive £400 for a four-hour session of clinical commissioning duties. This covers payments for locum doctors to replace GPs at their practices, although the rate is paid if they are needed or not.

GPs in Wakefield were receiving the same top rate, although officials said this has now been cut to £300 for a four-hour session.

In Hull, doctors are paid £360 for four hours of work for the city’s clinically-led commissioning committee including time for reading and travel.

They receive an hourly rate of £85 in North Yorkshire, and £325 in Kirklees for a half day, paid regardless of whether a locum is required. The lowest rate is in Doncaster where doctors are given £150 for a three-hour session of work.

It remains unclear how much doctors will be paid in total across the region in 2011-12 but around £10m has been earmarked for the development of GP-led commissioning including remuneration.

Leeds GP Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said he doubted GPs were making money themselves as the fees covered work by replacement doctors at surgeries which typically averaged around £300.

“Money is going back into practices so that patient care doesn’t suffer,” he said.

He said management budgets of the new clinical commissioning groups were being constrained and were likely to be 40-50 per cent less than soon-to-be abolished primary care trusts.

The Yorkshire Post understands there is speculation fees could be driven higher as thousands of family doctors become involved in commissioning, leading to big increases in rates demanded by locum doctors who are in short supply.

In some areas practice managers are also involved in the new commissioning groups. Their rates range from £15 an hour in Hull to £42.50 an hour in North Yorkshire.

Allison Cooke, chief operating officer for NHS North Lincolnshire, said it typically cost a GP £250-£320 for a locum replacement.

“GPs therefore typically receive approximately £150 per four hour session for their expertise,” she said.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “Any remuneration for board or advisory work by GPs on clinical commissioning groups is a local decision.

“It is unrealistic to expect GPs to leave their practices to do this work without appropriate resources to cover backfill costs.

“There is no intention to increase the amount of money GPs receive – the expectation is that most will receive locum/backfill costs rather than pay.”

Ministers originally estimated their reforms would save £5bn by 2015 and £1.7bn a year thereafter but revamped plans announced last month involve a significant increase in administrative costs, with more management roles retained.