Revealed: 'Britain's highest earning GP' rakes in £270,000 salary

Dr Satya Gupta, from Hackney, was today called "Britain's highest earning GP", amid growing calls for an inquiry by the local health trust.

Dr Gupta, who retired in the summer, is just one of more than 300 GPs across the country making more than £250,000 a year.

The GP has previously admitted his surgery took £270,000 a year from the NHS — but insisted his take-home pay was £130,000 after staff costs.

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He added: "It is nobody's business but mine what I earn."

His case will trigger a fresh row over the rise in GP earnings, which have leapt by more than a third since a new contract in 2004.

It allows them to earn money for hitting various targets, such as measuring blood pressure, but it has meant a minority are taking home hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Doctors said last month that the 307 GPs earning £250,000 and above were those who dispensed expensive medicines in rural practices.

However Dr Gupta earned his cash from a city practice. The Sun today claimed an inquiry would start within two weeks.

The GP, who is in his sixties, lives in Barnet and practised at the Oldhill Medical Centre until he retired in August. He said last year: "I have two other doctors and locums who I pay out of that amount.

"Mine alone is about £130,000... I have 9,000 patients on my books. There needs to be at least three doctors for that number.

"Everything I do is above board. I run my surgery in the most professional manner. It is nobody's business but mine what I earn."

Figures released in November showed the number of GPs earning more than £250,000 doubled between 2005 and last year.

The average family doctor in England now earns £113,600 and works about seven fewer hours a week than before 2004.

However, Dr Laurence Buckman of the British Medical Association argued last month: "Most of the increase in GP pay in recent years has come from the extra resources that GPs earn if they offer higher quality patient care.

"The outcome from this raised quality is a better standard of health." He added that the average salary was likely to fall in subsequent years in real terms, as the Government has pegged pay rises to zero per cent for the past two years.

However, the performance-related element of the contract means salaries could still increase.

A spokesman for City and Hackney Primary Care Trust declined to comment on the case of Dr Gupta, but stated: "The trust is committed to ensuring that any financial irregularities are addressed, and it takes appropriate steps."