Money in GP

sportswear

hey everyone was just wondering what kind of money GP's earn?

I know this can very wildly but say a standard GP in a medium sized multiple GP practice.


I'm an undergrad Med and im curious. To be honest wouldn't touch it with a barge pole at the moment but people always say they fall into it.

UrbanFox

OP, sorry to jump in on your thread. I have a related question that might be relevant to you.

GP's get paid a capitation fee for their GMS medical card patients - the famous over 70s cards. How much do they get paid per year for that service per patient ?

sportswear

another good question. its very funny that even though we do nearly 6 weeks of Gp they don't tell us any of this stuff

AmcD

It is getting much harder to "fall into" general practice as you now have to get onto a recognised general practice training scheme in order to get a medical card contract etc. There are usually 2-3 applicants per available post for the training schemes. The standard of candidates is usually excellent. People who obviously were concentrating on a different medical speciality are usually weeded out.
Most people are fairly cagey about how much they earn but you could get 70-80k after finishing your scheme. So you have 6 years in med school, a year as an intern and a further 4 years on the training scheme if you are lucky enough to get on it straight after internship. You will certainly earn your money, it is not the soft option. The main advantage is not having to do out-of-hours work if you don't want to. By the way I couldn't get a straight answer to this question until I was in the final year of the training scheme.
I checked the ICGP website for up to date capitation fees: for people who had a medical card before they were 70, the fee ranges from 135-240euro for an entire year. (135 for a male living up to 3 miles from the gp and 240 for a female living over 10 miles away from the gp). For people who get a medical card for the first time at the age of 70, the fee is 639euro for the year. As you can see, this is a little inequitable. Most of the people with the new over 70's cards live in relatively wealthy areas. This leads to further lack of funding for deprived areas. Strangely enough people seem to qualify for the medical card just before they hit 70. Odd that.

sportswear

Hi thanks for the reply AMcD.

I know its not the soft option. and the training scheme is tough enough. Would have thought the money would have been more substantial given the SpR scales.

Just from going about the hospital I can't believe the standard required of GPs- 6 months in OBS\GYN!!

and the hours are not near as fluffy as i thought!

Vorsprung

sportswear wrote: »

Just from going about the hospital I can't believe the standard required of GPs- 6 months in OBS\GYN!!

I know one guy who got out of that by doing a 6 month placement in a GP practice that did a lot of women's health stuff. Not sure how he got swung that though!

ergo

sportswear wrote: »

Just from going about the hospital I can't believe the standard required of GPs- 6 months in OBS\GYN!!

You don't have to do OBGYN as part of a GP training scheme, there are some schemes where you won't do it at all and other schemes you may do just 4 months in the various rotations and not 6 months

from talking to people I get the impression that GP's work the hardest for the money they do earn (and more and more these days, every cent is begrudged by Joe Public)

on the other hand there are studies stating that GP's have the most job satisfaction (I do not have references for these studies - I'm sure that conversely there are studies stating the opposite :rolleyes:).

beeno67

ergo wrote: »

from talking to people I get the impression that GP's work the hardest for the money they do earn (and more and more these days, every cent is begrudged by Joe Public)
quote]

Most people think they work harder than everyone else. I am a GP and have been for many years. We do not work harder than anyone else. There are some GPs doing ridiculous amounts of on-call but for most of these it by choice (they feel no one can do the job as well as they can). I can honestly say my consultant friends definitely work harder than I do.

Chunky Monkey

ergo wrote: »

from talking to people I get the impression that GP's work the hardest for the money they do earn (and more and more these days, every cent is begrudged by Joe Public)

Aye. I was charged forty quid yesterday to get a piece of paper signed, no check up even, and though I've defended GPs costs here before, I couldn't help feeling a bit annoyed

AmcD

Forty euro to sign a piece of paper sounds harsh. I am always filling out forms for people. They leave them at reception. I don't think reception charges them, but if they do it would only be a nominal fee.

As regards doing a 6 month obs/gynae rotation, I think you would be mad to try to get out of it if you are a woman. The call is appalling, but female gps are magnets for obs and gynae issues. There will always be a situation where you are the only female gp working with a male gp. Apart from that the antenatal visits and contraception consults are always enjoyable ones. You get a lot of confidence after doing obs and gynae.

By the way, thanks to fellow posters for not jumping on me after doing my original post about money issues. I thought I would be branded a thieving whingeing doctor.

Chunky Monkey

^ To be honest Dr McD you haven't come across that way at all.

ergo

beeno67 wrote: »

Most people think they work harder than everyone else. I am a GP and have been for many years. We do not work harder than anyone else. There are some GPs doing ridiculous amounts of on-call but for most of these it by choice (they feel no one can do the job as well as they can). I can honestly say my consultant friends definitely work harder than I do.

what I meant in my post is that GP's work the hardest for the money they get for it. If you know what I mean. Take a newly qualified GP who, 10 to 11 years plus after entering medical school, may earn €80,000 as an assistant in a GP practice and may be doing a very busy job to boot

whereas consultants (under the old contract) earn approx twice that plus possibly huge amounts more for private work.

but back to the original question (and as an aside I hadn't realised the capitation for over 70 medical cards was so much - €640 seems like an awful lot) - what kind of money can be made in GP.....? You may not know the answer to this because, as has been mentioned, people are "cagey" etc..... But starting out, let's say , as above, as a young GP, say assistant with a view to partnership in a practice earning maybe €70-90,000(I've heard more and I've heard less)..

does getting up to partner status or say getting your own GMS list increase earnings much or how does it pan out...?

Now I know, it does depend completely on the area, type of practice, mix of patients (public/private etc), but approximately speaking....?