Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that hourly rates paid to GPs to take part in commissioning range from £48 per hour in County Durham to £115 per hour in Hertfordshire.

GPs appointed to the board of a clinical commissioning group (CCG) look set to receive substantially more, with NHS Stoke-on-Trent intending to pay board members up to £100,000 each year.

In Coventry the chairs of the CCG will each be paid £35,000, while a CCG chair in Croydon, south London, will be paid £30,000 per annum.  

Labour shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said it doesn’t make sense to take GPs away from patient care to become ‘part-time accountants’.

He said: ‘These figures show yet more hidden costs of the government's plans, asking the NHS to pay for GPs who choose to attend meetings of the new commissioning boards and again for a second doctor to cover their surgery appointments.

‘In some cases, we'll see this adding up to tens of thousands of pounds per year for each doctor involved.’

Editor's blog: Labour should beware of criticising GPs for being double paid