GPs are under no obligation to report earnings over £156,000, the BMA advised.
The day after many GPs celebrated the changes in the Spring Budget, NHS England published ‘pay transparency’ guidance demanding that GPs publish earnings over £156,000.
The union’s guide on these demands, updated on Thursday 30 March, states: “It is unclear to us how NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) will police this. We are not aware of a way that NHSEI might verify the income of those who have declared or not declared, but we cannot be sure that this is not possible.
“We understand NHS Pensions and HMRC data on earnings are usually anonymised before sharing with NHS Digital/NHSEI, but we cannot be sure that they cannot access identifiable data.
“If a GP does not declare and is approached by the ICB or NHSEI, we would expect evidence of why they believe the GP should declare and where they have got that information. If this has been sourced through illegitimate means, it will be open to legal challenge.”
The BMA’s pushback appears as the General Practitioners’ Committee of England continues to wait for key details on the new GP contract, due to commence on Saturday 1 April.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “This is a very helpful and timely response from the BMA, and a great example of the adage that nothing dies harder than a bad idea.
“Our other story this week on falling numbers of FTE GPs is a problem that is in desperate need of a fix, and that is where the NHS needs to spend its energy.
“And going after hard working GPs by pay-shaming them is just ludicrous, and will do nothing to encourage GPs to provide more capacity.”