British GPs are best paid in the West... but our nurses get less than average Self-employed family doctors pick up salaries of about £103,000 Their pay has soared at one of the highest rates across the OECD But a typical nurse earns just 90 per cent the average UK wage Britain's GPs are the best paid in the Western world, while their nursing colleagues are way down the pay league, a report reveals today. Self-employed family doctors pick up salaries of about £103,000 - 3.4 times the size of average earnings and the highest ratio among member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Their pay has soared at one of the highest rates across the OECD, thanks to Labour's botched 2004 contract. A report has revealed Britain's GPs are the best paid in the Western world picking up salaries of about £103,000 But the report tells a different story for nurses, with Britain one of only three states that pays them less than the average wage. The typical nurse earns just 90 per cent the value of the average salary - a level that is worse only in Slovakia and Hungary. The Royal College of Nursing said the disclosure was another 'demoralising blow' for nurses, while the British Medical Association remained defiant, saying British GPs provide the 'widest range' of care in the world. The average salary of a GP is a third higher than before Labour's lucrative deal, which brought an end to out-of-hours work for many. The findings on health workers' pay are contained in a 200-page report by the OECD entitled Health at a Glance 2013. It said: 'As expected for highly-skilled professionals, the remuneration of doctors (both generalists and specialists) is much higher than that of the average worker in all OECD countries. (File picture) The average UK salary is around £31,000, but nurses take home 0.9 of the value of the national wage The income of self-employed GPs in the UK rose strongly following the implementation of a new contract for generalists in 2004 that was designed to increase their income as well as quality of primary care. Britain is one of the few countries where GPs do better than specialists. Consultants and hospital doctors, for example, earn 2.7 times the average salary of £31,413. 'In all countries except Denmark, Poland and the United Kingdom, GPs earn less than the average for medical specialists,' the report added. The report also showed that, despite the high salaries they earn, British doctors rank lowly in terms of consultations per head of population. The average person in the UK sees a doctor around five times a year - less than the OECD average of eight. In nursing, of the 24 countries surveyed by the OECD Britain's nurses were ranked 22nd in a league table of pay compared to average wages. The average UK salary is around £31,000, but nurses take home 0.9 of the value of the national wage, ahead of only Slovakia and Hungary on 0.8. Luxembourg and Israel rank highest at 1.4 times the annual salary. Dr Peter Carter, of the Royal College of Nursing, said: 'This will come as yet another demoralising blow to nursing staff in the UK, who are already dealing with the prospect of yet more pay freezes. With pressure on the frontline more intense than ever, nurses continue to go the extra mile to keep vital services going. Surely it is common sense that properly valuing frontline staff is better for the staff, better for the health service, and better for patient care. A spokesman for the British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said GPs provided the widest range of care in the developed world. 'There is a much greater emphasis on prevention than elsewhere and general practice is also extremely cost-effective,' he said. 'All this benefits our patients as well as the taxpayer, as it's much cheaper to stop people becoming seriously ill in the first place. Many countries are looking at our model of primary health care because they recognise it works well. A spokesman for the Department of Health accepted the figures, but did not believe that nurses' wages were below average earnings. 'Average GP pay levels have fallen steadily since 2006,' she added.