NHS is great

My impression is that the doctors here don't make a huge boatload of money like a lot of doctors in the US.  I know (generally) where my GP (the one I saw for the early years) lives, right here in town, because I saw him leaving his house to walk his dog one day, and we recognised & said 'hi' to each other.  (He lives along the way on the walk down to where Andee lives!)  He lives in just a modest, ordinary, average house - much like mine.  That surprised me!

I don't know what US doctors earn, but GP salaries in the UK are pretty high up there... a salaried GP employed directly by a PCT earns between £50,000 and £80,000 a year (from the NHS website) and some GPs earn over £100,000 (apparently there are even some GPs who take home over £300,000 due to overtime on evenings and weekends  !).

I don't know what US doctors earn, but GP salaries in the UK are pretty high up there... a salaried GP employed directly by a PCT earns between £50,000 and £80,000 a year (from the NHS website) and some GPs earn over £100,000 (apparently there are even some GPs who take home over £300,000 due to overtime on evenings and weekends  !).

Ok, well then maybe they do earn a lot - I'm sure more than average Joe does.  I was surprised that this guy was living just like an average Joe - not in a posh neighbourhood, fancy house, etc.

Mrs R, I'm surprised that your GP is close to retiring.

One difference I've noticed is that the GPs at my practice and at the practice where I used to live have all been quite young.

It makes me think that NHS doctors tend to only stay GPs  for a while, and then move on to something else.

Also I think it depends if they specialise - like a OB/GYN would earn a lot more than general practitioner, so on & so forth.

Yeah, I didn't think he was 'that old', but he does have grey hair.  Small, pleasant guy though it took us awhile to warm to each other as doctor-patient.  I think he is one of the principals there.  He was 5 days a week when I moved here.  Now he's down to only 2 days a week, I think - when he isn't on holiday!  He said he was slowly winding down his work hours 'til retirement.  Maybe he isn't 'that old' but living a modest lifestyle means he can retire sooner?

One difference I've noticed is that the GPs at my practice and at the practice where I used to live have all been quite young.

It makes me think that NHS doctors tend to only stay GPs  for a while, and then move on to something else.

My three GPs are in their 40's and 50's - one has teenage kids, the second has 3 kids in their 20's - the eldest of which was one of my friends at school - and the third is the second one's wife... they've been with the practice for 11 years, 15 years and 22 years respectively. Before them, our two GPs were in their 50s or 60s, I seem to remember... I was only young when they left the practice, but I do remember that they both had grey hair .

Maybe it depends on the geographical area and also probably their family situation as to how long GPs stay with a practice - I live in a large, family-oriented town in the suburbs and our GPs have raised/are raising families in the area while working for the practice (their kids went to school and attended social activities with us when we were growing up), so they weren't very likely to leave the town and go on to something else. However, I can imagine that young GPs who don't have families and aren't particularly settled anywhere (and are possibly practicing in urban areas with more career opportunities) are more likely to move on to different jobs after a period of time.

I don't know what US doctors earn, but GP salaries in the UK are pretty high up there... a salaried GP employed directly by a PCT earns between £50,000 and £80,000 a year (from the NHS website) and some GPs earn over £100,000 (apparently there are even some GPs who take home over £300,000 due to overtime on evenings and weekends  !).

They also tend to have lower student loan debt and malpractice insurance costs than their counterparts in the US.

Regarding pay and costs for physicians in the US and UK:

When I left my academic hospitalist position in the US and became a consultant in Scotland, I took a 35-45% pay cut (variable depending on the exchange rate).  Had I left a private practice hospitalist job for my consultant post, or left a medical subspecialist (i.e., nephrology, cardiology, etc.) job, my pay cut would have probably been around 60%.  Had I been a surgeon and made the transfer to the UK as a consultant, the pay cut could have been as high as 80-90%.

Why the variation?  Achievement awards and discretionary ("brownie") points aside, what a UK consultant makes from their NHS contract is solely dependent upon the number of years of experience they have.  However, in the US, physician salaries vary widely by what you specialize in and whether you're academic/government versus private practice.  Some psychiatrists and pediatricians in the US can struggle to make more than five figures USD.  For these physicians, an NHS consultant contract would be a slight pay raise--if they bothered going through the enormous trouble and expense required to transfer your credentials and your self from the US to the UK.  Some private neurosurgeons or cardiothoracic surgeons in the US can hit seven figures USD from clinical fees alone.  Because of these issues, American consultants in NHS are exceedingly rare (so far, I'm the only one I know of!).

The only exception to the NHS consultant contract is the GP contract.  The GP contract is performance based and there is a lot of room for increasing their salary, usually into the low six figure GBP range.

Giantaxe is right.  I have an average amount of school debt for a graduate of a US medical school, and my school debt is ~ 50x that of my UK-trained medical colleagues.  My malpractice insurance in the US to cover working in critical care at a tertiary referral institution was ~ 30,000 USD/year.  My "malpractice" insurance (= medical defence union) in the UK to do essentially the same job is 524 GBP/year.

Thanks for that - very interesting!  I did think that salaries here, in general & on balance (allowing for variables), were lower than US doctors - but not having the school loan debt & malpractice costs to the same extent is a good point.

During the political campaign, one of the partys' manifestos had an item about paying doctors according to performance.

I found it kind of strange that the NHS don't already do that, at least to a degree.

It's possible that the manifesto completely misrepresented the situation, of course.

Regarding old/young doctors, I live in an urban areas, so that could explain why the doctors here seem to be young.

Quick question...UK citizen in my 50's, returning to UK to retire. I've been gone from UK for about 20 years.

1. Upon moving back, if I stay retired and don't work at all, will I have to pay anything in to the NHS system?  (I have a wife and two kids). Will I have to pay a monthly 'stamp' or anything? If so, how much is it? (When I lived in UK before, I seem to recall that self employed people in UK have to pay a monthly stamp...but I'm unsure if thats for the NHS or if its for NI/soc security retirement credits).

2. I know my NI number, but how can I find out what my NHS number or id is/was? Will it still be active and in the system?

Thanks!

1. Not sure. But I don't think you'll be required to pay anything.

2. Your GP's office, when you register, should be able to look into the system for that information using your name and date of birth. It most likely will have your old UK address on it as well (which they will update).

The monthly stamp for self-employed people is for National Insurance.