Your guide to working as a salaried GP

As a salaried GP, you work contracted hours for a medical practice. Many GPs take on salaried roles during their careers, which provides them with a structured working week within a single practice alongside a consistent team, seeing a regular practice population.   

In this article, we’ve outlined everything you need to know about what a salaried GP is. Whether you’re a newly qualified GP or are considering taking on a salaried GP role after working in another capacity, you’ll find useful information to help you proceed with your next steps in the profession.  

The benefits of a salaried GP role

Stability

In a salaried GP role, you’ll work regular hours, giving you a consistent routine and structured commitments, with your evenings and weekends usually free. You also get a fixed monthly salary, which allows you to plan out your finances for regular outgoings. 

Consistency

You’ll be able to build relationships with other staff working within the surgery, which can bring with it support and guidance along with the ability to share skills and knowledge over time. 

As a salaried GP, you also get to focus mainly on delivering clinical care to patients, which can in turn help you to build trust relationships with the patients registered at the practice. 

Employment rights and benefits 

What a salaried GP role also offers is employee rights and benefits. You’ll be eligible for sick pay, annual leave and maternity or paternity leave. Other advantages include having a minimum notice period, protection from unfair dismissal, statutory redundancy pay (after two years) and the right to flexible working requests. 

Different ways of working as a salaried GP

There are various ways you can work as a salaried GP. Your preferred option will depend on what you’d like to achieve from the role, how you’d like to invest your time as well as your future career ambitions.  

GP with an extended role (GPwER) 

If you want to be a GP with an extended role (GPwER), you can develop and utilise new skills in order to offer services not usually carried out in everyday general practice. Your employer may fund your training and development, as your skills will be of value to the practice. 

Out-of-hours GP 

You can also become an out-of-hours GP if you’d like to support people with urgent care. These may be children, older people or those with long-term health conditions and complex mental health needs. There will be no typical day, so the role comes with a lot of variety.  

Being an out-of-hours GP can also appeal to you if you want to change your schedule and free up your daytime hours. Alternatively, you might take this route if you want to supplement your existing hours as a salaried GP. 

GP retention scheme 

You can also embark on a GP retention scheme if you can’t commit to full-time hours. This allows you to keep your training updated and continue practising as a GP, with employment provided to suit your circumstances. 

Career development opportunities as a salaried GP

There are a range of ways you can advance your career as a salaried GP. 

Firstly, you may want to consider becoming a GP partner. This allows you to play a key role in running a practice, developing both your management and human resources skills.  

Being a GP partner involves being responsible for ensuring that the whole practice delivers quality care. At the same time, you’d still be able to continue with core GP work such as seeing patients. However, you'd also be expected to bring value by partaking in activities like practice and industry leadership, teaching and development, and service efficiency. 

Following on from working as a salaried GP, you may also want to become a locum GP. With flexibility, attractive rates of pay and the ability to expand your skill set, it gives you the opportunity to have even greater control over your shifts, fitting work around your personal life and commitments.  

If you’re interested in working as a locum, you can take on locum shifts in addition to working as a salaried GP too. 

For something different, there are also enhanced career opportunities such as academic or educational roles, non-clinical roles, training or leadership. 

Career opportunities with GP World

As the UK’s leading network for GPs and primary care professionals, we bring you unparalleled expertise and exclusive roles you won’t find anywhere else.  

Our unsurpassed knowledge of the market, along with our trusted relationships with UK healthcare providers and PCNs, means we can help you to achieve your perfect next role and your long-term career goals. 

Register with us or get in touch today to find out how we can help connect you with the most exciting GP job opportunities.