UK. Growing number of GPs cut shifts to avoid huge pension tax
A growing number of family doctors are reducing the hours they work to avoid a huge and unexpected pension tax bill. The decision increasingly means already-overstretched surgeries have fewer appointments to offer patients. One GP who last year dropped two of her eight sessions a week now intends to drop two more, halving her original workload. “Losing two sessions a week will have a significant impact on waiting times for patients booking appointments and also mean delays in dealing with administrative tasks such as referrals, letters and results”, she said.
“The other doctors in the practice are already working over their capacity and are simply not able to take on the additional workload caused by the loss of two sessions.”
Another GP, who is facing an £18,000 tax bill relating to his pension, has decided to stop doing extra work as an out-of-hours GP at weekends to avoid being hit with similar bills in the future.
Read more @The Guardian
