£300,000 salary for Kirklees GP is £120,000 more than Brown

Aug 5 2009 By Neil Atkinson

A KIRKLEES doctor is taking home more than £300,000 a year.

The unnamed GP has been revealed as one of the country’s top earners.

The payment is £120,000 more than Prime Minister Gordon Brown receives and more than THREE times the money paid to the Government’s Health Minister Andy Burnham.

It’s also 12 times the average salary of £25,879 for people working in Kirklees.

The GP was said to have earned a total of £321,794 last year, while the highest earning GP in the south London boroughs of Sutton and Merton earned £319,000.

The overall highest paid family doctor in the country was in the North East Essex PCT, which covers surgeries in the Colchester area, earned £380,394.

A Norfolk GP was taking home £310,000 – even after outgoings were subtracted.

The Government has defended GP earnings after the investigation found some were taking home more than £300,000 a year.

Since the introduction of the new GP contract in 2004, doctors can also earn as much as £204 an hour for evening and weekend work, the investigation found.

Local health officials declined to comment on the survey findings or the pay of the Dewsbury-based GP.