About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland, in partnership with NHS National Services Scotland, provides information about NHSScotland payments to General Practices for the financial year 2020/21, including analysis of payments by NHS board area.

Main points

In 2020/21 the sum of NHSScotland non-dispensing payments made to 928 General Practices was £950.5 million. Payments have increased by £55.8 million (6.2%) compared to 2019/20.

• £800.9 million was paid to General Medical Services (GMS) contracted practices run by GPs;
• £111.5 million was paid to locally negotiated contracted practices (17C) run by GPs; and
• £38.0 million was paid to NHS Board run practices (2C).

Total Payment by type of General Practice This line chart shows by type of practice, the total payments made to them in each of the last seven years.

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Total Payment by type of General Practice

Of the £950.5 million paid in 2020/21, the Global Sum was the largest payment amounting to £643.8 million to 928 General Practices.

Of the £55.8 million increase, £22.5 million was due to Covid support payments introduced to assist with the additional costs borne by the practices as a result of the pandemic.

In addition to the £950.5 million, £21.9 million was paid to 88 General Practices for dispensing services in 2020/21, a decrease of £1.0 million, paid to 89 General Practices for these services in 2019/20.

Background

This annual release provides information on NHSScotland payments to General Practices for the financial year 2020/21. It does not provide information on General Practitioner earnings, which are published by NHS Digital (external website) every September.

Global Sum Payments are a contribution towards the contractor’s costs in delivering essential and additional services, including its staff costs.

The new GMS contract came into effect from the 1 April 2018, introducing significant increases in funding designed to support a significant change in the delivery of General Medical Services. More information about the contract can be found on the Scottish Government (external website) website.

A broad suite of information relating to General Practice in Scotland can be found on General Practice section of our website (external website), and wider information about Public Health Scotland can be found on News section of our website.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be February 2023.