GP Practices , funding, profitability?

[Thisoldheartofmine]

Google tells me that GP Practices are funded by the NHS .
But Google also throws this up
. On average, a GP partner takes home approximately £110,000
Are GP Practices private businesses making a profit?
I so don't understand this whole area .
Can someone help me ?

Every smear they do, coil they fit, hypertensive patient whose bp is under control etc, etc results in payment.

www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/privacy-notice/how-we-use-your-information/our-services/primary-care-commissioning/#:~:text=GP%20payments,on%20behalf%20of%20NHS%20England.

They hold an NHS contract to provide a service. They get paid additional funding for achieving targets such as getting your blood pressure or Diabetes under control. If they have a dispensary then they also get to share the profits from that.
The staff employed at a GP surgery are employed by the GPs and the GPs decide how much to pay them and pay themselves as they in effect ‘ own the buisness’

Yes GP practices are private businesses and always have been.
They have a contract with the NHS to provide NHS services.

This is not true.
I spent over 20 years in my career managing GP practices.
They DO NOT earn commission on medications they prescribe.
Stop making shit up.

Thanks Yourmummy , that does help. I think I have this niggling feeling ( which might be completely wrong ) that some practices make a profit out of providing health care .
And that there must be a lot of regional variation

I suppose that's owing to how they were set up long ago ?
Just feels odd to think that the salary of a GP will depend on how much money a practice can bring in.
But maybe I've got this wrong and I'm way off in my thinking.

I think when the NHS was formed GPs were originally going to be employed by the new NHS but many of them disagreed with this. GPs had always been self employed and patients paid for a consultation, or to call the doctor out if a woman in labour needed a doctor, or someone was ill etc.. GPs at the time saw it as a downgrade to be employees so they retained self employed status and were contracted to the NHS. The initial funding was probably very basic, a payment per head registered with that GP.

Not in the UK they don’t.

Practices are run as businesses but hold one contract only, with the NHS. They get a certain amount per patient registered with them, per year, then extra pots of money depending what they do or offer as additional services.

Out of their pot of money they pay rent/mortgage for the property, all bills, all salaries, all consumables, pension contributions, sick pay, costs incurred by referrals and tests. Cleaning, sterilising services, all supplies, maintenance, some vaccinations, some medications used within the surgery eg emergency drugs, medical equipment.

It’s not a business like a normal business with shareholders etc.

And very few GPs will have salaries of £110k, and definitely not salaried GPs.

@Titouenk They are not. Show me one recent UK based evidence article showing how prescribing is commission based. Damn, I’m a prescriber. I must have missed where I get commission for prescribing certain drugs.

Everything we prescribe comes out of a drug budget. We are pretty much tied to regional and local formularies and are regularly audited on our prescribing.

I think GP surgeries can also form consortiums, like several can be connected and hold an NHS contract. Probably has benefits like sharing expertise. I might be wrong.

@SaltyChocolate yes you can form Primary Care Networks. A group of surgeries can “join” to share some funding, which they can use to employ for example shared physiotherapists, a mental health nurse, social prescribers, as well as equipment and provide centralised services across their locality.

They can also drive policy change and spending and purchasing power.

A very few practices are managed by the NHS, for example where a GP retires and no one wants the contract, or where there is a single handed GP (this isn't advisable for multiple reasons). The NHS tends to amalgamate a few practices and run a helath centre, with a full range of health professionals, but this is much more uncommon than a GP practice running as a business.

Interesting replies , thank you all

@Sidge thank you for the detailed post. I hadn't realised that practices incurred costs for referrals and tests.

I know they're self employed but do the GPs get NHS pensions?

I've been looking for a thread in the strike action that GP partners voted for today. Can someone please point me to a thread if there is one?

Yes. So do GP locums