FORTY Buckinghamshire GPs earn more than £120,000 – with one taking home £191,000.

The top earning doctor got £191,505 based on net pensionable income.

There are 83 GP practices in the county. A list of individual doctors is not available on the NHS website.

The information was disclosed by debt-hit health bosses in response to a Freedom of Information request on their website – but this was removed without explanation today.

Buckinghamshire NHS Primary Care Trust – which employs a full-time communications department – refused tell Bucks Free Press why this was removed, who the doctors were or comment on the pay.

A leading GP said the pay should not have been disclosed – and defended salaries with the warning that some practices could struggle to stay open.

But the TaxPayers’ Alliance hit out at the move and the national system of paying GPs for extra services, meaning they can effectively “top up” pay.

Campaigns manager Susie Squire said: “Many GPs are receiving sky-high salaries that are out of kilter with front line healthcare workers.

“Obviously, rewarding good performance is important but the culture of charging auxiliary payments for every basic medical duty must come to an end.”

Extra payments on offer nationally in 2008/09 included a reward for practices to record the ethnicity and first language of patients on their lists.

She said: “The NHS’s budget is tight and it is important that we don’t let these extra payments get out of control.”

The PCT has overspent by £39.2m since 2006, its first three years.

The authority – which decides where most NHS cash is spent - is forecasting break-even this year but warns the deficit could be £7.5m if it fails to control spending.

A leading doctor said the PCT should not have known GPs’ pay as they are independent contractors.

Dr Paul Roblin, chief executive of the Buckinghamshire local medical committee, said: “They shouldn’t be using that information in that way.

“The only people who know income levels are the individual practices.”

Doctors are not directly employed by PCTs but work as independent contractors for the NHS.

Dr Roblin, who said he had not contacted the authority to complain, also defended GP pay.

He said: “GPs have had very little percentage increases for the past four years.

“Income levels did jump with the new contract but there have been considerable claw-backs since then.

“Many practices are now struggling to remain viable. They have had no pay increases for years.”

The PCT said the Bucks Free Press’ questions would have to be answered through the Freedom of Information Act, which is available to all people.

This could take up to 20 working days, the maximum time limit allowed under the act.