If the nation loves its doctors, why is it that some of us feel queasy at the notion that a GP can earn a quarter of a million pounds a year? Does the concept of a shabby gentleman with worn cuffs and a battered black bag as deep and dark as the circles round his eyes fit more comfortably with our gut feeling of what a family doctor ought to be?

Most of 40,000-plus GPs in Britain aren't on the £250,000 reported yesterday by the Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants. In fact, there's some dispute as to who these super-rich docs are. According to the British Medical Association, the average income of a GP today is around £95,000 for a 52½-hour week.

It is certainly the case that this year's model GP has a more civilised life than before. Working at weekends and after 6.30pm is no longer required, unless the doctor wants to earn out-of-hours payments that can clock up £60 to £70 an hour. As such, being a GP is about the only family-friendly branch of doctoring. Part-timers abound.

But if GPs today are wealthier and more comfortable, the money still has to be earned. Everybody does the basics, under the terms of contracts agreed with primary care trusts, but the government has devised a scheme whereby a further 1,000 money-attracting points are offered under the catchily named Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) in around 15 different disease areas, such as asthma, cancer, diabetes and dementia. For example, a GP can score up to five points depending on the percentage of his or her stroke patients who are on cholesterol-lowering drugs. In an average-sized practice, the GP will get around £124.60 per point.

So it's hard to imagine that the GPs who are getting richer are spending more time on the golf course. They must be working harder - if only doing all the sums - or else they are spending their cash on managers and computers to do it for them. In fact, £95,000 a year represents an hourly rate of around £40. Not quite the Super League. Any shock over the figures may have more to do with our preferring to think of doctors being inspired by a vocation to heal the sick rather than their bank balance, like everybody else.