Written evidence submitted by Dr Stephen Hanna, GP Partner, Escrick Surgery, York (FGP0025)
The GP Partnership model has the potential to work well.
However, it is becoming less and less attractive mainly because of the risk of becoming ‘last man standing’ i.e. if the partnership either fails or cannot recruit, an individual partner can be left with the personal risk of redundancy payments for all members of staff. This is compounded by the General Whitley Council rules regarding redundancy for salaried doctors which are extremely generous and therefore magnify this risk for partners.
Moreover, the options for work outside of the partnership model eg locuming, are very profitable, and give people a further disincentive to become a partner.
The NHS Pensions Annual Allowance Tax scheme is a further headwind to recruitment. This has been covered at length by the BMA. The changes made to the threshold have helped to an extent but do not take into account that those who already have a reasonable pension pot, can face significant tax bills caused by the annualised growth in their pot, on top of whatever contributions they have made – a further disincentive to work.
Naming and shaming individuals by pay publication has become a final straw for many, causing them to wish to reduce hours or retire.
I would suggest making GP partnership more attractive by:
Nov 2021