How Much GP Nurses Get Paid In London

GP Practice Nurse, Debbie, explains how much you can expect to earn in London, how pay can vary and how there is opportunity for negotiation in this business run environment.

Hello, my name is Debbie and I'm a Practice Nurse in London.

Today I'm going to be discussing how much Practice Nurses really make.

Now a disclaimer, this is based on my experiences, what I have seen and the fact that I live in London.

So it will be very different to other areas.

Now, before we go on, I'm going to discuss what a GP Practice really is and how they receive funding.

How GP Practices Are Run

A GP Practice is considered as a medium sized business and they are commissioned by NHS England or CCGs to provide care to a certain geographical area.

Now it's usually run by a one GP or two GPs as partners or a GP with Nurses or Practice Managers who are considered stakeholders, who pull their resources together to start up a GP Practice.

If it's considered as a business, there is a contract, there are many types of contracts, but I'm just gonna focus on the main contract, which is called the GMS.

Contractual Terms Of A GP Practice

This is a contract that basically states what the practice should be doing, what they should be offering, such as making sure that they open at certain hours, like 8am to 6pm usually.

Making sure that they're providing the general practice services such as management of long term conditions or smear test, childhood immunisations, things like that, stating whether or not they will be part of the out of hours services.

So outside of that 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, they will be opening on weekends, etc.

And things like that and included in this contract is also whether they'll be providing services like coil insertions or minor operations and things like this.

Funding Based On Statistics

So that is basically how they receive funding depending on what they do.

Making sure that they have a list of patients, their addresses because in GP practice, there are a lot of the statistics such as how many people in an area have diabetes or how many people who are Black or who are Asian or who are white, contribute to the diabetes status or things like that.

The GP practices have a lot of statistics when it comes to that area.

Performance Based Funding

So another way that practices get money is through the QOF.

And that is the Quality Outcome Framework which most practices subscribe to.

And this is basically to put in a nutshell, performance based funding.

So if a practice, for example, has 100 diabetic patients, how many of those patients are you able to see within the financial year, so April to April?

So if you're able to see 80% of them, that puts you at a higher level, or if you can see 90% or if you can see just different percentages basically, and the better you are within the QOF, the more points you get.

And then at the end of the year, you receive some sort of bonus as a practice, and that can now be distributed with staff.

But that's all the boring stuff.

Basic Details On Pay

Now, how much do practice Nurses really make?

So on average, at least in London, the pay can start from £15/16/£17 per hour, based on a 37.5 hour week. About £28,000 to £29,000.

For some people a bit less, for some people a bit more.

Now, after one year of service, this can easily go up to about £38,000 to £40,000, depending on obviously the skills that you can attain within your year of service. This is roughly about £19/£20/£21 an hour.

And again, this can be more or less, so for some people after a year, they can go up to about £35,0000 OR £36,000; £16 to £19 an hour.

So it just depends.

These are just rough figures.

So don't quote me, but roughly, that is the marker.

I have been to certain practices for interviews.

And they do more than just the general childhood immunisation smears.

They also use their practice as a place of laser treatment, dermatological treatment and cosmetic surgery, things like that.

So being able to do that brings more income, meaning that they're paying their nurses a lot more.

More Skills, More Pay

Now, the beauty of being a Practice Nurse means that you can negotiate this salary.

So as you are getting training, you know, if you're able to complete every single training that you need as a Practice Nurse in six months, after six months you're able to go to your manager and say, hey look, I've done all of this and I would like a pay review.

If you can do that within nine months or a year, then likewise, your years of service do contribute to obviously how much you get paid also, but being able to stay on top of your courses and stay on top of various skills can heavily contribute to how much you get paid.

Being part of the QOF, so helping core patients who are between the ages of 25 and 65 for their smears, being able to call diabetic patients, making sure that they are coming for their reviews, things like this that add to the QOF will then boost your practice's QOF points and that can generate income as well.

And you can sit in your appraisal and be able to say, hey, I help with these things and various things like that.

Pay can go up to about £55,000/£45,000.

Again, it all depends on how much experience you have in your field. Now not everybody is going to get the same pay.

And that's another thing about Practice Nursing. It's not part of the Agenda for Change Pay Scales.

And so it's not a case of you're now band 6. So therefore you're getting paid this much.

You're now this band. So therefore you're getting paid this much.

It's run as a business.

Opportunities For A Pay Review

So according to what the company or what the practice sees fit to pay you, that is how much they'll pay you and you can put it in your contract that you would like to have this pay reviewed at least once a year.

So you have a trajectory of where you're going.

So in a nutshell, working as a Practice Nurse I think is great in terms of being able to up your pay, especially if you then decide to specialise.

If you say you want to become an ANP, so that's an advanced Nurse Practitioner or Prescriber, you can get a lot more money by going on to various courses or if you become a partner yourself, like I said, Nurses are able to become GP partners as well, where they are also stakeholders.

And so, you're able to invest in the company, in the practice also.

So various things like that, being part of the policy makers, etc, can help to increase your pay.

So I hope that helps, I hope that gives people an idea of how much Practice Nurses can make.

It can range from literally between £15 an hour when you're just starting roughly, to about £25 per hour for some people.

And again, it all depends on the practice that you are with and how much they're willing to pay you.