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GP trainers: Recommendations of the DDRB for 2008 - 09

April 2008

Uplift to the trainer’s grant
The Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body (DDRB) has recommended a 2.2 per cent uplift to the GP trainer’s grant.

The General Practitioners Committee (GPC) considers the level of the uplift to be inadequate. It does not fully recognise the experience and skills of GP trainers. Nor does it reflect the workload and costs involved for the training practice as a whole in training and supervising GP specialty trainees, as demonstrated by the BMA’s UK-wide survey of training practices.

The BMA has been pressing for a substantial review of the remuneration for GP trainers for a number of years, and the DDRB has agreed with this. However, the Department of Health has so far failed to take this forward properly. It is further disappointing that the DDRB has stated that it believes that, until the review is complete, the value of the trainer’s grant should only be increased by the standard 2.2% which it has awarded for other salaried doctors. However, the DDRB did note that, as part of the review, account should be taken of the results of the GPC‘s survey of GP training practices.

£750 CPD payment
There is some good news to report. The DDRB has confirmed that the £750 payment for continuing professional development should continue to be paid on an annual basis to GP trainers with a trainee. This means that GP trainers should have received a £750 payment for the years 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 and should now receive such a payment in 2008-09. This is provided that within any part of these years they had a GP trainee.

It was previously understood that the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) payment ceased after 2006-07. Many GP trainers (except those in Scotland) did not therefore receive their £750 entitlement for last year. While we recognise that many deaneries will not have budgeted for this payment, the GPC will be working to ensure that eligible trainers receive the 2007-08 as well as the 2008-09 payments as soon as possible. If you do not receive the outstanding payments by the end of July 2008, please inform your Local Medical Committee (LMC) so that this message can be forwarded to the GPC office for action.

The DDRB has also clarified that the £750 CPD payment should be paid for one year if a trainer is not allocated a trainee. This means that if a GP trainer has been without a trainee for a whole year from and including 2005-06, they are entitled to receive the £750 for that ‘fallow’ year but would not receive a further £750 if they had another ‘fallow’ year later. However, they would be entitled to the full payment for the relevant years when they did have a trainee.

We would like to point out that we are aware that so far some deaneries have not passed on the full £750 CPD payment to their trainers. This is sometimes on the basis that the money has been withheld to fund educational courses. This is grossly unfair. The GPC has obtained legal advice that if a trainer was led to believe that the course would be free of charge and he/she attended it on that basis, then the deanery cannot charge for, or recoup the cost of, this course at a later date. To do so could amount to a misrepresentation claim. The GPC is currently in correspondence with one particular deanery about this. However, if you have experienced such practice then please contact your LMC about this.

This briefing document can be downloaded using the link on the right hand side of this page.