In 2025/26, a UK doctor's basic NHS salary ranges from about £38,831 for a first-year foundation doctor (FY1) to £139,882 for a senior consultant. What an individual doctor actually takes home depends on their stage of training, how many unsociable (night, weekend and on-call) hours they work, and their job role. Read on for a full breakdown of doctor pay at every stage, updated for the 2025/26 pay scales and the 2026 pay deal.
Doctor pay has been one of the most contested issues in the NHS since 2022, with resident doctors (the new official name for junior doctors, introduced in September 2024) taking repeated industrial action over pay restoration. In June 2026 the Government put a fresh offer to the BMA, worth an average uplift of around 6.6% delivered by April 2027, which resident doctors are voting on as of June 2026. So the question stays firmly in the headlines: how much do doctors actually earn?
A topic filled with complexity and misunderstanding, in this article, we’ll break down exactly how much junior doctors and consultants currently earn in the UK, and how this changes throughout their careers.
We will also explain how the 2024 multi-year deal and the 2025/26 and 2026/27 pay awards affect doctors' salaries, what the resident doctor rename means, and the average debt associated with studying to become a doctor.
👉🏻 Read more: Resident Doctor & Junior Doctors' Strikes in the UK
How Much Do Doctors Make - Summary:
Doctors in the UK make different amounts of money per year based on their level of training following graduation from medical school.
Grade
Basic NHS pay (2025/26)
Notes
Foundation Year 1 (FY1)
£38,831
First year after medical school
Foundation Year 2 (FY2)
£44,439
Second foundation year
Resident doctor in training (registrar)
£52,656 to £73,992
Core and specialty training, by nodal point
Consultant
£105,504 to £139,882
Basic pay, before extra earnings
Salaried GP
£73,000 to £110,000
BMA model salary range
GP partner
£110,000+
Profit share, varies by practice
These 2025/26 basic-pay figures are based on the BMA pay scales and NHS Employers pay and conditions, and are updated as each new pay award is confirmed. They show basic pay only, before banding, on-call, weekend and London weighting enhancements.
A junior doctor (officially renamed a resident doctor in September 2024) is a fully qualified medical professional who has completed 4 to 6 years of medical school, sometimes after a prior undergraduate degree. The term changed but the role and pay scales did not: a resident doctor is any doctor in postgraduate training who has not yet reached consultant or GP level.
It is often misinterpreted that “junior doctor” refers to medical students in their university training, however, this is not correct. Junior doctors have graduated from medical school, and are in their postgraduate training, whilst working full time as a doctor.
The term 'junior doctor' describes any doctor who is on the path to becoming a consultant or a GP but hasn't reached that level yet.
There are several categories of junior doctor based on their experience and seniority:
Foundation Year 1/2 Doctors (FY1/FY2): These are doctors in their initial two years after graduating from medical school, rotating through different specialities every four months each year.
GP Specialist Trainees (GPSTs): After completing their foundation years, GPSTs undergo a three-year specialized training program, rotating through specialities pertinent to general practice before becoming fully qualified GPs.
Core Medical/Surgical Trainees: These individuals are in the early stage of specialized training, focusing initially on a broad medical or surgical foundation before narrowing down to a specific field.
Specialist Trainees: Doctors in this group are either in the latter stages of specialised training or engaged in a continuous training program that spans from the post-FY2 stage to becoming a consultant.
Other Paths: There are also more complex routes, including positions like FY3/4/5, and clinical fellows, among others, indicating the diverse career paths within medicine.
How Much Do Foundation Doctors (FY1 and FY2) Earn in England in 2025/26?
Foundation doctors in England earn a basic salary of £38,831 (FY1) to £44,439 (FY2) in 2025/26.
Following 4, 5 or 6 years at medical school, a first-year doctor (FY1) receives a basic salary of £38,831 in 2025/26, which works out at roughly £18.59 per hour for a standard 40-hour week before any enhancements. This reflects the multi-year deal agreed in 2024 plus the 2025/26 award of 4% with a £750 consolidated payment.
When the doctor completes their FY1 year, they will become an FY2 doctor.
An FY2 doctor has an increased basic salary of £44,439 in 2025/26.
Between 2023 and 2025 resident doctors took repeated strike action over pay and working conditions. In June 2026 the Government made a revised offer to resolve the dispute, which doctors are balloting on as of June 2026.
👉🏻 Read more: Junior Doctor Contract and Controversies
How Much Do Resident Doctors and Registrars Earn in England?
Resident doctor pay in England is set by the 2016 contract using a system of nodal points. Instead of rising every year, your basic salary jumps when you move up a nodal point, for example from FY2 into core or specialty training. The 2025/26 nodal point basic salaries are: nodal point 1 (FY1) £38,831; nodal point 2 (FY2) £44,439; nodal point 3 (CT1-2/ST1-2) £52,656; nodal point 4 (CT3-4/ST3-5) £65,048; and nodal point 5 (ST6-8) £73,992.
These are basic salaries only. Most resident doctors earn well above these figures once banding and additional payments are added for nights, weekends and on-call work, which we explain further down.
A resident doctor in core or specialty training in England earns a basic salary of £52,656 to £73,992 in 2025/26.
Following their foundation years, a resident doctor enters core or specialty training. Doctors in the senior years of specialty training are commonly called registrars.
As a registrar, a doctor’s salary no longer increases yearly, but rather at different “nodal points” of training.
What Are The Different Types Of Registrar Doctors And How Much Do They Earn?
Stage Of Training
Nodal Point In Training
Basic Salary (£)
CT1 and CT2 or ST1 and ST2
3
43,923
CT3 or ST3 and ST4 and ST5
4
55,329
ST6 and ST7 and ST8
5
63,152
How Much Do Junior Doctors Earn In England: Summary
Not every senior doctor becomes a consultant. Specialty and Associate Specialist (SAS) doctors are experienced doctors working at a senior level outside the traditional consultant pathway. In 2025/26 a specialty doctor in England earns a basic salary of roughly £63,696 to £102,689, while a specialist grade doctor earns approximately £104,401 to £115,341. Like consultants, SAS doctors can boost their take-home pay through additional and on-call work.
The basic salary of a consultant in 2025/26 ranges between £105,504 and £139,882, depending on years of service.
A consultant in the NHS is a highly specialised doctor, with an average of 8 - 10 years of postgraduate training.
Consultants received a 4% pay award for 2025/26, on top of the 2024 settlement.
This salary can increase over time depending on years in service and working more evenings and weekends. It can also increase with Local Clinical Excellence Awards (LCEAs), which can range from £3,016 to £36,192.
Consultants may also enhance their take-home pay through private practice outside the NHS.
Consultants reached a pay agreement with the Government in 2024, ending their formal dispute, though the BMA continues to argue for further pay restoration.
How Much Do GPs Earn in the UK in 2025/26?
Salaried GP vs GP Partner: What Is the Difference in Pay?
The biggest factor in a GP's income is whether they are salaried or a partner. A salaried GP is employed by the practice on a fixed salary (roughly £73,000 to £110,000 full-time in 2025/26) with predictable hours and no business risk. A GP partner is a part-owner of the practice: they share in the profits, which can mean drawings of £140,000 or more, but they also take on financial and management responsibility. Partner income has been squeezed in recent years, partly because of the wider NHS GP shortage and funding pressures, a major topic at medical school interviews.
The recommended salary range for a salaried GP in England is roughly £73,000 to £110,000 in 2025/26, whilst a GP partner will usually earn more.
A GP is a consultant-level doctor in the UK, with a minimum of 5 years post-graduate training.
The salary of a GP depends on how they are employed. Many GPs work as a salaried GP, employed by the practice, on a recommended pay range of roughly £73,000 to £110,000 in 2025/26.
Salaried GP pay depends on how many sessions are worked each week (a session is roughly a morning or afternoon clinic of about four hours). A full-time salaried GP works around eight sessions, with each session worth in the region of £10,000 to £12,000 a year.
A GP who takes on the practice as a business owner, known as a GP partner, can earn more. According to NHS Digital, the average income before tax for combined contractor and salaried GPs was around £120,200 in 2023/24, with many full-time GP partners drawing £140,000 or more, depending on the practice and days worked.
👉🏻 Read more: The Medical Training Pathway For Doctors In The UK
What Pay Enhancements Do Doctors Get?
What Is the 2026 Resident Doctor Pay Deal?
Resident doctors have campaigned for full pay restoration since 2022, arguing that their pay fell sharply in real terms over the previous 15 years. After repeated strikes, the Government made a revised offer in June 2026 that, combined with the DDRB recommendation, is worth an average uplift of around 6.6% by April 2027, plus 4,500 extra specialty training places to ease the jobs bottleneck. Under this offer FY1 pay rises to about £41,226 (up 6.2%) and FY2 pay to about £47,610 (up 7.1%) from April 2026, and the five nodal points are reformed into seven (and later ten). Resident doctors are voting on the offer as of June 2026. You can read more about the wider dispute in our guide to the resident doctor and junior doctor strikes.
What Does the Resident Doctor Rename Mean?
In September 2024, the term "junior doctor" was officially replaced with "resident doctor" across the NHS in England. The change was made because "junior" was misleading: many so-called junior doctors have a decade or more of experience and significant responsibility. The rename did not change pay scales or contracts, only the job title. If you want to understand why retention is such a concern, see our guide on why so many resident doctors are leaving the UK.
There are a number of pay enhancements that doctors receive which increase their take home pay.
The above figures indicate the basic salary of a UK doctor. However, the take-home pay by doctors will vary based on pay enhancements which will be individual to each doctor’s rota.
Weekend Allowance
Doctors receive a weekend allowance based on their point in training and the frequency of weekends worked.
This is paid as a percentage of their full-time basic salary and ranges from 3% to 15%.
Doctors working fewer than 1 in 8 weekends will not receive any allowance.
Oncall Allowance
Doctors who are rostered to work in an on-call capacity will receive an allowance for this. This allowance again is determined by the level of seniority of the doctor.
Flexible Pay Premia - For Hard-To-Fill Training Programmes
Doctors training in programmes which are typically hard to fill will receive a salary uplift.
These premia are worth several thousand pounds a year, for example for general practice, psychiatry, emergency medicine and some other shortage specialties.
There are criteria that the doctor will have to meet to be eligible for this.
London Weighting
Doctors working in and around London receive a high cost area supplement (London weighting), ranging from an inner London uplift down to a fringe rate. For a foundation doctor this can add roughly £2,000 to £3,000 or more a year on top of basic pay.
How Much Do Locum Doctors Earn?
Locum rates vary widely by grade and region, but internal (NHS bank) locum work is paid at set hourly rates while agency locum shifts can pay considerably more per hour.
Doctors may be able to enhance their salary through “locuming”, where they fill in empty rota gaps at an enhanced rate outside of their currently rostered working hours.
The pay for a locum doctor varies with experience level. The BMA publishes recommended minimum locum rates, and external agency rates for senior doctors can reach well over £80 to £100 per hour for hard-to-fill shifts.
How Much Does It Cost to Become a Doctor in the UK?
When you weigh up a doctor's salary, it helps to set it against the cost of getting there. Five or six years of tuition fees, living costs and lost earnings mean most graduates start their careers with substantial debt. For a full breakdown of fees, living costs, funding and the realistic total, read our dedicated guide on how much it costs to become a doctor in the UK, and our overview of the medical training pathway for doctors in the UK to see how pay rises at each stage.
It is estimated that the average medical student graduates with around £70,000 to £100,000 of student loan debt, reflecting the length of the degree and higher living costs.
This is significantly larger than for most other degrees because of the length of the medical course, with tuition fees of £9,535 per year for home students from the 2025/26 academic year.
Most recent graduates are on Plan 2 or Plan 5 student loans, repaid at 9% of income above the relevant threshold (£27,295 for Plan 2; £25,000 for Plan 5 for students starting from 2023).
There are several factors which will determine a doctor’s take-home pay, ranging from the number of hours worked, the unsociability of the doctor’s rota, as well as hidden costs such as hospital parking permits.
Medical students in the UK do not get paid for completing their training and attending hospital training. To learn more about the cost of becoming a doctor in the UK and university tuition fees, check out our guide.
👉🏻 Read more: Why Are So Many Resident Doctors Leaving the UK?
In 2025/26, an NHS doctor's basic salary ranges from about £38,831 for a first-year foundation doctor (FY1) to £139,882 for a senior consultant. FY2s earn £44,439, resident doctors in core or specialty training earn £52,656 to £73,992, salaried GPs roughly £73,000 to £110,000, and GP partners often £140,000 or more. Most doctors earn more than basic pay once banding, on-call and weekend enhancements are added.
What is the starting salary for a junior doctor (resident doctor) in 2026?
A first-year foundation doctor (FY1, the entry grade for a newly qualified resident doctor) has a basic salary of £38,831 in 2025/26, roughly £18.59 per hour for a standard week before enhancements. Under the June 2026 Government offer, FY1 pay would rise to about £41,226 from April 2026. Take-home pay is higher once nights, weekends and on-call banding are included.
How much does an FY1 doctor earn?
An FY1 (foundation year 1) doctor in England earns a basic salary of £38,831 in 2025/26. This equates to around £18.59 per hour for a standard 40-hour week before any enhancements. Most FY1s earn more in practice because of banding supplements for nights, weekends and on-call work, plus London weighting if they work in or near the capital.
How much does an FY2 doctor earn?
An FY2 (foundation year 2) doctor in England earns a basic salary of £44,439 in 2025/26, sitting at nodal point 2 of the resident doctor pay scale. As with FY1, actual take-home pay is usually higher once additional payments for unsociable hours and on-call duties are added on top of the basic figure.
How much does a consultant earn in the UK?
An NHS consultant in England earns a basic salary of £105,504 to £139,882 in 2025/26, depending on years of service. On top of this, consultants can earn more through additional programmed activities, on-call availability, clinical excellence awards (worth thousands of pounds each) and private practice, so total earnings often exceed the basic range considerably.
How much does a GP earn in the UK?
A salaried GP in England earns roughly £73,000 to £110,000 in 2025/26 depending on sessions worked, while GP partners share practice profits and often draw £140,000 or more. NHS Digital reported an average income before tax of around £120,200 for combined contractor and salaried GPs in 2023/24. A GP's pay depends heavily on whether they are salaried or a partner.
What is the difference between a salaried GP and a GP partner?
A salaried GP is employed by a practice on a fixed salary (about £73,000 to £110,000 full-time in 2025/26) with set hours and no business risk. A GP partner co-owns the practice, shares in its profits (often £140,000 or more) and takes on financial and management responsibility. Partners can earn more but carry the risk of running an NHS business.
How much do registrars and specialty trainees earn?
Resident doctors in core or specialty training in England earn a basic salary of £52,656 to £73,992 in 2025/26, depending on their nodal point. Nodal point 3 (CT1-2/ST1-2) is £52,656, nodal point 4 (CT3-4/ST3-5) is £65,048, and nodal point 5 (ST6-8) is £73,992. Banding and on-call payments typically push take-home pay well above basic.
How much do SAS and specialist doctors earn?
In 2025/26, a specialty doctor (SAS grade) in England earns a basic salary of roughly £63,696 to £102,689, while a specialist grade doctor earns approximately £104,401 to £115,341. SAS doctors are experienced senior doctors working outside the standard consultant training route, and they can increase their pay through additional and on-call work.
What is the resident doctor pay deal for 2026?
In June 2026 the Government made a revised offer to resident doctors in England worth, with the DDRB recommendation, an average uplift of around 6.6% by April 2027, plus 4,500 extra specialty training places. FY1 pay would rise to about £41,226 and FY2 to about £47,610 from April 2026, and the five nodal points would be reformed into seven. Resident doctors are voting on the offer as of June 2026.
Why are junior doctors now called resident doctors?
In September 2024, "junior doctor" was officially replaced with "resident doctor" across the NHS in England. The change was made because "junior" was misleading: many of these doctors have years of experience and major clinical responsibility. The rename only changed the job title, not pay scales or contracts, so a resident doctor and a junior doctor are the same thing.
How much does a doctor earn per month in the UK?
Monthly pay depends on grade and enhancements. In 2025/26 an FY1's basic salary of £38,831 is roughly £3,235 a month gross before tax, and a consultant on £105,504 to £139,882 earns about £8,790 to £11,650 a month gross. Net (take-home) pay is lower after tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and student loan repayments, but higher with banding and on-call payments.
What pay enhancements do doctors receive on top of basic salary?
Doctors can earn well above basic pay through several enhancements: weekend allowances (3% to 15% of basic salary depending on frequency), on-call availability allowances, flexible pay premia for shortage specialties, and London weighting (a high cost area supplement). Consultants can also receive clinical excellence awards and income from private practice. These extras explain why take-home pay often exceeds the headline basic figures.
How much do doctors earn per hour in the UK?
An FY1 doctor's basic salary of £38,831 in 2025/26 works out at roughly £18.59 per hour for a standard 40-hour week, before any enhancements. Hourly equivalents rise at each grade, and actual rates are higher once banding for nights, weekends and on-call work is included. Locum and agency shifts are paid at a separate, often higher, hourly rate.
Do medical students in the UK get paid?
No, medical students in the UK are not paid during their degree and do not earn anything while attending hospital placements. They pay tuition fees (£9,535 a year for home students from 2025/26) and usually graduate with significant debt. Paid earning only begins after graduation, when they start as a foundation year 1 (FY1) doctor on a basic salary of £38,831.
Is being a doctor in the UK worth it financially?
Financially, medicine offers a stable, well-paid career with clear pay progression from about £38,831 (FY1) to £139,882 or more (senior consultant or GP partner), plus a strong NHS pension. However, doctors start with £70,000 to £100,000 of student debt, train for many years and work intense hours. Most choose medicine for the career itself rather than purely for the pay, though long-term earnings are solid.
Who are the highest paid doctors in the UK?
The highest earners are consultants in the most in-demand specialties (such as surgery, cardiology, radiology and anaesthetics), especially those who top out the consultant scale, take on extra programmed activities, earn Clinical Excellence Awards, and do private practice. GP partners in efficient practices and some SAS specialist doctors can also earn well into six figures. Basic consultant pay reaches £139,882 in 2025/26, but total earnings can be considerably higher.
Do doctors get a London weighting allowance?
Yes. Doctors working in and around London receive London weighting on top of basic pay, reflecting the higher cost of living. The exact amount depends on the trust and zone (inner, outer or fringe London). This is one reason advertised "total pay" for the same grade can look higher in London than elsewhere, even though the basic salary is the same nationally.
How much do doctors take home after tax?
Take-home pay is lower than the headline salary once income tax, National Insurance, pension contributions (the NHS Pension Scheme) and student loan repayments are deducted. As a rough guide, an FY1 on about £38,831 takes home roughly £2,300 to £2,500 a month, while a consultant on £120,000 keeps a smaller proportion because of higher-rate tax. Pension contributions are tiered by salary.
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