GP trainers’ and appraisers’ grants increased

GP trainers and appraisers will see the value of their grants increased by 2.8%, the Government has said.

Responding to the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) annual report, health minister Helen Whately said it was accepting its recommendations in full.

She said this meant the Government would ‘accept the recommendation for a uniform 2.8% uplift in pay across the whole of the DDRB’s remit group with the exception of those already in multi-year deals’.

This will see the minimum and maximum of the pay range for salaried GPs increased. The minister added that it also ‘includes uplifting the value of the GMP trainers grant [and] the GMP appraisers’ grant’.

GP contractors in England were excluded in the pay increase because of the five-year deal entered into in 2019.

GPs in Scotland and Wales were also awarded a 2.8% uplift in line with recommendations but the Northern Irish Government has yet to announce any uplift.

It comes as NHS England is working to ‘redesign the current process’ for GP appraisals, with the intention to ‘take a flexible approach’ to their reintroduction in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.