Posts Tagged ‘Money’
How much do doctors get paid?
Posted on January 25th, 2009 by Rob
When during my medical school interview I was asked “Why do you want to be a doctor?” I didn’t reply “cos I wanna get paid loads of money”… but I thought it! However, if you do want to make buckets full of cash perhaps medicine isn’t the right career for you. It’s true that medicine is a well paid profession. After all you spend 4-6 years at university, amount thousands of pounds worth of debt, and generally work rubbish hours. There are better paid professions and jobs. How about accountancy or business? Your reasons for choosing a career in medicine are personal to you, however I wouldn’t imagine that money can possibly be a sole reason. I admit that you do get paid pretty well and that sweetens the deal.
The pay scale for doctors is rather complicated, but during this article I will attempt to give you an idea of what doctors get paid. Starting with my salary as a new house officer (F1):
| Month | Gross pay | Deductions | Net pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 2008 | ?1483.62 | ?256.70 | ?1330.60 |
| September 2008 | ?1703.41 | ?348.48 | ?1473.35 |
| October 2008 | ?4918.45 | ?1647.51 | ?3389.36 |
| November 2008 | ?1828.41 | ?603.83 | ?1343.00 |
| December 2008 | ?3810.81 | ?1316.03 | ?2613.20 |
The two things that stand out on this is table is firstly the amount you get paid varies greatly from month to month and secondly there are lots of deductions.
The reason that my gross pay varies so much is because I choose to work extra hours as a locum and also because NHS banding changes every 4 months. Most hospitals are short of all grades of doctors because the working hours have reduced so much recently, there simply aren’t the doctors to cover the new shift patterns. This means that if you are motivated by money you can give up your weekends, evening and even holidays to work. The locum rate for a house officer is ?20-30 an hour.
The deductions on a junior doctors pay include income tax (PAYE), national insurance, pension contributions, student loan re-payments, and payment for the doctors mess (?18 per month – see previous blog posting for explanation). Total deductions work out at about 30% of your gross pay.
The basic pay for junior doctors (taken from the NHS careers website):
Foundation House Officer 1 = ?21,862
Foundation House Officer 2 = ?27,116
Specialist Trainee = ?28,976 – ?44,562
GP (non partner) = ?52,462 – ?79,167
GP (partner) = ?80,000 – ?120,000
Consultant = ?73,403 – ?173,638
This is the very basic pay and does not include out of hours banding, locum pay, cremation forms (a major addition to house officers income) or private work (not for junior doctors).
If a person wishes to be cremated once dead a ‘crem form’ must be completed by two different doctors that don’t work together. It is generally the job of the house officer to complete part one of the form. Part one is filled in by a doctor that saw the patient while they were alive, during the illness that lead to their death and can state what the person died of. You must sign the form to say that they are sure that the person died of natural causes and not foul play. Part 2 is completed by the pathologist. The form takes about 20 minutes to complete (less if you knew the patient well) and you get paid ?70 per form. I have a friend who did his first F1 job in care of the elderly and he did an average of 3 forms per week – that’s an extra ?900 per month. Some people think it’s immoral to get paid for this. I even know a doctor that refused to cash the cheques! This is silly because even if you refuse payment the funeral director still charges the family and so by refusing payment you just line the pockets of the funeral director.
NHS doctors also get a salary banding that reflects the hours they work and how unsociable the hours are.
| Band | Hours per week | Unsociable hours | Amount added |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | >56 | any | 100% |
| 2a | 48-56 | Lots ( 1 in 3 weekends ) | 80% |
| 2b | 48-56 | Moderate ( 1 in 5 ) | 50% |
| 1a | 40-48 | Lots ( 1 in 4 ) | 50% |
| 1b | 40-48 | Moderate ( 1 in 6 ) | 40% |
| 1c | 40-48 | Some ( 1 in 8 ) | 20% |
The most common banding for a Foundation House Officer 1 is currently 2b (50%), making the average wage for a F1 ?32,793. Again this is before you do any locum shifts and it doesn’t include the cremation forms. However, fairly soon the most common banding will go down to 40% and then 20% and it won’t be long before all F1 jobs are unbanded.
Remember that during your F1 year you will do 3 four month rotations and each rotation (job) will have a different banding. My girlfriend started with a 40% banding for her first job but then her second job was unbanded resulting in a 40% pay cut. My first job (obstetrics and gynaecology) was unbanded but when I moved to my second job (surgery) I got a 40% pay rise. You will notice, however, that my actual monthly pay was more when I was doing obs and gynae. This is because during the unbanded job I had plenty of spare time to do lots of locum shifts.
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