ABSTRACT
General practitioners (GP) may acquire non-practitioner service in various ways, the most common being the mandatory hospital experience acquired before entering general practice. Many GPs also work as clinical assistants, hospital practitioners, GP tutors and course organizers. For ease of reference, we refer to independent contractors as 'practitioners', as does the NHS pension scheme itself. For the purposes of the NHS pension scheme, the FHSA or Health Board assumes the role of the 'employer' in relation to practitioners; it maintains pension records and administers the scheme locally. An alternative method of calculating pension benefits has been devised to take account of the fact that practitioner earnings may decline before retirement and is based on the total NHS superannuable income earned during a lifetime's career. If a medical practitioner is on the list of more than one FHSA or Health Board, one authority assumes responsibility.
