Pay for doctors

The information here covers different positions, including doctors in training, specialty doctors, consultants and GPs working in England.  

Doctors in training

As a doctor in training you’ll earn a basic salary, plus pay for any hours over 40 per week, a 37 per cent enhancement for working nights, a weekend allowance for any work at the weekend, an availability allowance if you are required to be available on-call, and other potential pay premia.

In Foundation training, you will earn a basic salary of £29,384 to £34,012 (from 1 April 2022).

If you’re a doctor starting your specialist training in 2022 your basic salary will be £40,257 to £53,398.

Specialty doctors and specialist payscale

If you’re working as a specialty doctor you’ll earn a basic salary of £50,373 to £78,759. If you are a specialist grade doctor you'll earn a basic salary of £80,693 to £91,584.

Consultants

As a consultant from 1 April 2022, you'll earn a basic salary of £88,364 to £119,133 per year, depending on the length of your service. You may apply for local and national Clinical Excellence Awards. This is a competitive process which takes into account work that you do over and above delivering your basic job requirements. In addition, if you take on extra responsibilities, for example in management or education, you may expect to be paid more.

Consultants can also supplement their salary by working in private practice if they wish. The opportunities available will depend on their specialty areas and the time they wish to spend on this outside of their NHS contracted hours.

General practitioners

There are two contractual options for GPs. They can be:

1) independent contractors who are in charge of running their own practices as business either alone or in partnerships. They have autonomy in how services are delivered according to their contract with the Clinical Commissioning Group. In England, these GPs have increasing responsibility for the commissioning of hospital services for the community

2) salaried GPs who are employees of independent contractor practices or directly employed by primary care organisations. From 1 April 2022, the pay range for salaried GPs is £65,070 to £98,194.

Further information

For more information about pay for doctors, visit the NHS Employers website.