Medical Physicist Salary 2026/27: Band 7-8c

Last updated: 1 November 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

Medical physicist pay 2026/27: the Band 7 to Band 8c scales

England awarded Agenda for Change staff 3.3% from 1 April 2026, and that award is already in these figures. A medical physicist in England in 2026/27 earns £49,387 to £56,515 at Band 7, £57,528 to £64,750 at Band 8a, £66,582 to £77,368 at Band 8b and £79,504 to £91,609 at Band 8c, for a full-time 37.5-hour week. The step from the top of Band 7 (£56,515) to Band 8a entry (£57,528) is £1,013, and the step from the top of Band 8a (£64,750) to Band 8b entry (£66,582) is £1,832. Those small gaps at the point of promotion are normal: the gain comes from the wider spread inside the higher band, £10,786 inside Band 8b and £12,105 inside Band 8c, and from the seniority of the work. For the wider picture at each band, see the Band 7 salary guide and the Band 8a to 8d salary guide.

The 2026/27 England scales for a full-time 37.5-hour week. Hourly rates are annual pay divided by 52.2 weeks and then by 37.5 hours, rounded to the nearest penny, and enhancement rates on this page are calculated from that rounded hourly rate. Monthly pay is annual pay divided by 12. Weekly pay is annual pay divided by 52.2.

For comparison, the 2025/26 ranges before the 3.3% award were £47,810 to £54,710 at Band 7, £55,690 to £62,682 at Band 8a, £64,455 to £74,896 at Band 8b and £76,965 to £88,682 at Band 8c. The award lifted every step, and no back pay was due in England because the increase was paid on time in April salaries.

What a medical physicist actually does

A medical physicist works where physics meets patients. In radiotherapy, the physicist's job is to make sure the prescribed dose reaches the tumour and as little else as possible: treatment planning calculations, checks on the linear accelerator's output, and the quality assurance that catches a calibration drift before it reaches a patient. A treatment plan is only as good as the physics behind it, and the physicist signs off the dosimetry that the whole course of treatment depends on.

In diagnostic imaging, the work is the same principle applied to pictures rather than treatment: testing scanners, setting protocols so that a CT or MRI image is good enough to diagnose from at the lowest dose that achieves it, and checking that equipment across a department performs consistently. Nuclear medicine adds a third strand, handling radioactive tracers used for diagnosis and therapy, with the shielding, measurement and waste controls that keep staff exposure within limits. Radiation protection runs through all three: the physicist advises on controlled areas, monitors doses, and writes the local rules that turn national regulations into daily practice.

None of this is visible to the patient, which is part of why the role is poorly understood outside hospitals. A physicist rarely meets the patient whose treatment they planned, yet their calculations decide how much radiation that patient receives. The work is technical, heavily documented, and audited: every calibration, every plan check and every equipment test leaves a record, because the regulator and the trust both expect to be able to show that the physics was right. For the neighbouring healthcare science picture, see our clinical scientist salary guide and our radiographer salary guide.

Band 7, Band 8a, Band 8b and Band 8c: what actually changes

At Band 7, a medical physicist carries a defined area of service: a set of treatment machines, an imaging modality, or a nuclear medicine workload, with responsibility for its quality assurance and for the junior physicists and trainees working in it. Band 7 is where most medical physicists spend the bulk of their clinical careers, and the work is hands-on with equipment and plans every day.

At Band 8a, the brief widens to leading a section: radiotherapy physics, imaging physics or nuclear medicine within a trust, with the rota, the budget for the section's equipment checks, and the relationship with consultant oncologists and radiologists. A Band 8a physicist answers for the section's standards and for its waiting times when a machine is down or a plan is delayed. For the Band 8a picture in full, see the Band 8a to 8d salary guide.

At Band 8b, a medical physicist leads physics across a whole service or a large department, often as head of a section with several Band 8a staff beneath them, and carries the strategic work: new equipment procurement, business cases for replacement machines, and the trust's radiation protection governance. At Band 8c, the role is head of medical physics for a trust or a regional service, with responsibility for every physics strand, the department's establishment, and the interface with the board on radiation safety. The jump from Band 8b to Band 8c is a management jump as much as a pay jump: the physics expertise is assumed, and the job is judged on running the service.

Unsocial hours, overtime and on-call

Section 2 of Agenda for Change pays time plus 30% for Saturdays and weekday nights (8pm to 6am) and time plus 60% for Sundays and bank holidays, for Bands 4 to 9. Most medical physics work falls in weekday hours, so unsocial-hours pay is usually a smaller part of the package than it is for ward staff. The exceptions are weekend machine quality assurance, Saturday treatment planning cover, and urgent imaging physics support, and the hours actually worked in those windows attract the enhancement. A 7.5-hour Saturday shift at Band 7 entry pays £246.00 at the enhanced rate, against £189.23 at plain time, using the rounded hourly rates in the table.

Overtime follows the band, not the job title. At Band 7, hours above 37.5 a week are paid at time and a half, and double time on bank holidays. An overtime hour at Band 7 entry is worth £37.85 (£25.23 times 1.5), at the intermediate step £39.80 (£26.53 times 1.5), and at the top of Band 7 £43.31 (£28.87 times 1.5). At Bands 8a, 8b and 8c there is no contractual overtime pay: time off in lieu only. Enhancement and overtime cannot both be claimed for the same hours, and staff may elect time off in lieu instead of overtime pay. On-call is different from both: the payment for being available, as opposed to hours actually worked when called in, is set locally by each trust, so this page quotes no on-call rate. Ask at interview how the rota works, how often call-ins happen, and how the availability payment is structured in that trust. For the full rules, see our unsocial hours and overtime guide.

London weighting: the HCAS cap binds at every step

Medical physicists in London trusts receive the High Cost Area Supplement on top of basic pay: 20% of basic in inner London (minimum £5,794, maximum £8,746), 15% in outer London (minimum £4,870, maximum £6,137) and 5% in the fringe zone (minimum £1,346, maximum £2,270). At Bands 7 to 8c the percentage figure exceeds the maximum in every zone at every step, so the supplement is the cap figure in each zone: £8,746 inner, £6,137 outer and £2,270 fringe. A medical physicist at the top of Band 8c in inner London earns £91,609 + £8,746 = £100,355 a year, and at Band 7 entry in inner London £49,387 + £8,746 = £58,133. For the full zone rules, see our London weighting guide.

Pension: what comes off the payslip

Medical physicists are in the NHS Pension Scheme, and the member contribution is the largest regular deduction after tax. On the provisional 2026/27 England and Wales tiers: Band 7 entry sits in the 9.8% tier at £4,839.93 a year or £403.33 a month on £49,387; Band 7 intermediate sits in the 9.8% tier at £5,089.34 a year or £424.11 a month on £51,932; Band 7 top sits in the 10.7% tier at £6,047.11 a year or £503.93 a month on £56,515; Band 8a entry sits in the 10.7% tier at £6,155.50 a year or £512.96 a month on £57,528; Band 8a intermediate sits in the 10.7% tier at £6,464.62 a year or £538.72 a month on £60,417; Band 8a top sits in the 10.7% tier at £6,928.25 a year or £577.35 a month on £64,750; Band 8b entry sits in the 10.7% tier at £7,124.27 a year or £593.69 a month on £66,582; Band 8b intermediate sits in the 12.5% tier at £8,862.00 a year or £738.50 a month on £70,896; Band 8b top sits in the 12.5% tier at £9,671.00 a year or £805.92 a month on £77,368; Band 8c entry sits in the 12.5% tier at £9,938.00 a year or £828.17 a month on £79,504; Band 8c intermediate sits in the 12.5% tier at £10,543.25 a year or £878.60 a month on £84,346; Band 8c top sits in the 12.5% tier at £11,451.13 a year or £954.26 a month on £91,609. The employer contributes 23.7% on top, which is £11,704.72 a year at Band 7 entry and £21,711.33 a year at the top of Band 8c. The 2026/27 tiers are provisional, calculated from the published 2025/26 tiers, so treat the tier boundaries as subject to confirmation. For the full tier table, see our pension contributions guide.

Part-time work, leave, mileage and uniform relief

Part-time medical physicist work is pro rata of the full-time equivalent salary. A 0.8 WTE physicist at Band 7 entry earns 80% of £49,387, which is £39,509.60 a year, and a 0.6 WTE physicist at the top of Band 8c earns 60% of £91,609, which is £54,965.40 a year, before any enhancements. Part-time staff accrue annual leave pro rata, and hours above contracted hours up to 37.5 are paid at plain time plus any unsocial enhancement that applies; only above 37.5 does the overtime rule bite. For the leave rules in full, see our annual leave guide and our part-time pay guide.

Annual leave in England follows the Agenda for Change tiers: 27 days plus 8 bank holidays for up to 4 years of service, 29 plus 8 from 5 years, and 33 plus 8 from 10 years. Some medical physics work involves travel between sites, for example to satellite radiotherapy or imaging centres, and that travel is claimable under Agenda for Change Section 17. The 2026/27 car rates are 59p a mile for the first 4,500 business miles in the mileage year and 36p a mile above that, with 30p for motorcycles, 20p for pedal cycles and 5p for passengers. A physicist who drives 7,000 business miles in a year claims 4,500 miles at 59p (£2,655) plus 2,500 miles at 36p (£900), a total of £3,555. Travel between home and the normal place of work is not claimable. For the full rates, see our mileage rates guide. Where a uniform is worn and the employer provides no laundry service or allowance, HMRC flat-rate expenses apply: the default for a uniformed job not separately listed is £60 a year, worth £12 a year at the basic tax rate and £24 at the higher rate, backdatable up to 4 tax years on form P87.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Scotland has its own Agenda for Change scale and a 36-hour week from April 2026, after a 3.75% award from 1 April 2026. The Scotland Band 5 range is £34,494 to £42,977, which works out at £18.36 to £22.87 an hour on the 36-hour week. Scotland Band 7 to Band 8c steps are not quoted here because the full Scotland scales for those bands are not in the verified data file, and this page does not guess at them. Wales awarded 3.3% from 1 April 2026, and the Wales Band 5 steps are £32,557, £35,114 and £39,631, slightly above the England steps at entry and intermediate. Northern Ireland is different: the 3.3% award was recommended but had not been implemented at the time of writing, so Northern Ireland medical physicists should not budget on the new rates until implementation is confirmed. For the nation guides, see NHS Scotland pay, NHS Wales pay and NHS Northern Ireland pay.

The honest picture: senior pay for invisible, audited work

Medical physicist pay in 2026/27 is strong, nationally set and transparent: anyone can look up the band, find the step and know the basic salary to the penny, and the ladder runs further than most healthcare science roles, to Band 8c and beyond £90,000 at the top. What it does not do is pay a premium for the specialism itself. There is no physics supplement in the national Agenda for Change scale, and a medical physicist at Band 7 earns the same basic as a senior nurse at Band 7. The unsocial-hours additions are also smaller here than in ward or on-call specialties for most of the working week, because planning, calibration and quality assurance run in daytime hours. The senior end of the ladder compensates with responsibility rather than enhancements: at Band 8b and 8c the job is running a service, defending its standards to regulators, and making the case for machines that cost more than most staff will earn in a lifetime. When comparing medical physicist posts, confirm the band and step, ask which section the post leads and how large it is, ask about the on-call rota and how it is paid, ask about the HCAS zone, and check whether the post carries radiation protection responsibility. Those answers tell you more about the real pay of a post than the job title alone ever will.

Frequently asked questions

What band is a medical physicist in the NHS?

In England in 2026/27, medical physicist posts sit mainly at Band 7, Band 8a, Band 8b and Band 8c on Agenda for Change. Band 7 pays £49,387 at entry, £51,932 at the intermediate step and £56,515 at the top. Band 8a pays £57,528 at entry, £60,417 at the intermediate step and £64,750 at the top. Band 8b pays £66,582 at entry, £70,896 at the intermediate step and £77,368 at the top. Band 8c pays £79,504 at entry, £84,346 at the intermediate step and £91,609 at the top, for a full-time 37.5-hour week. Medical physicists are healthcare scientists, not nurses and not doctors: the job sits in the healthcare science workforce alongside clinical scientists and physiologists, and the exact band is set by the job evaluation for each post, so check the advert rather than assuming the band from the title.

What does a medical physicist do?

A medical physicist makes radiotherapy and diagnostic imaging safe and accurate. In radiotherapy, physicists calculate treatment plans, calibrate linear accelerators and run the quality assurance that verifies the prescribed dose reaches the tumour. In diagnostic imaging, they test scanners, set protocols that balance image quality against dose, and check that equipment performs consistently across a department. In nuclear medicine they handle the radioactive tracers used for diagnosis and therapy, with the shielding, measurement and waste controls that keep staff exposure within limits. Radiation protection runs through all three strands: advising on controlled areas, monitoring doses and writing the local rules that turn national regulations into daily practice.

How much does a medical physicist earn a month?

In England in 2026/27, a full-time medical physicist at Band 7 earns £4,115.58 a month at entry, £4,327.67 at the intermediate step and £4,709.58 at the top, before tax, National Insurance and pension deductions. At Band 8a the monthly figures are £4,794.00 at entry, £5,034.75 at the intermediate step and £5,395.83 at the top. At Band 8b they are £5,548.50 at entry, £5,908.00 at the intermediate step and £6,447.33 at the top. At Band 8c they are £6,625.33 at entry, £7,028.83 at the intermediate step and £7,634.08 at the top. Those are gross figures for a full-time 37.5-hour week, before any unsocial-hours enhancement, on-call payment or London weighting.

Do medical physicists get unsocial hours pay?

Medical physicists are on Agenda for Change, so Section 2 enhancements apply to hours actually worked in the unsocial windows: time plus 30% for Saturdays and weekday nights (8pm to 6am) and time plus 60% for Sundays and bank holidays, for Bands 4 to 9. Most planning, calibration and quality assurance work falls in weekday hours, so unsocial-hours pay is usually a smaller part of the package than it is for ward staff. The exceptions are weekend machine quality assurance, Saturday treatment planning cover and urgent imaging physics support. Overtime above 37.5 hours a week is paid at time and a half at Band 7 and double time on bank holidays, while Bands 8a to 8c receive time off in lieu only, and staff may elect time off in lieu instead of overtime pay.

Do medical physicists get on-call pay?

Some medical physics services run on-call rotas, for example for radiotherapy machine faults or urgent imaging support, but on-call payments are set locally rather than in the national Agenda for Change scale, so this page quotes no on-call rate. What can be said nationally is that hours actually worked when called in attract the Section 2 enhancement for the window they fall in: time plus 30% for Saturdays and weekday nights and time plus 60% for Sundays and bank holidays at Bands 7 to 8c. If a post includes on-call, ask at interview how the rota works, how often call-ins happen, and how the availability payment is structured in that trust, because the local arrangement is what determines the real value of the rota.

Do medical physicists get London weighting?

Yes, where the post is based in a London trust. Medical physicists receive the High Cost Area Supplement: 20% of basic in inner London (minimum £5,794, maximum £8,746), 15% in outer London (minimum £4,870, maximum £6,137) and 5% in the fringe zone (minimum £1,346, maximum £2,270). At Bands 7 to 8c the percentage figure exceeds the maximum in every zone at every step, so the supplement is the cap figure in each zone: £8,746 inner, £6,137 outer and £2,270 fringe. A medical physicist at the top of Band 8c in inner London earns £91,609 + £8,746 = £100,355 a year, and at Band 7 entry in inner London £49,387 + £8,746 = £58,133.

How much pension does a medical physicist pay?

On the provisional 2026/27 England and Wales tiers, Band 7 entry sits in the 9.8% tier at £403.33 a month on £49,387, and Band 7 top sits in the 10.7% tier at £503.93 a month on £56,515. Band 8a entry and intermediate sit in the 10.7% tier (£512.96 a month on £57,528 and £538.72 a month on £60,417), and Band 8a top sits in the 10.7% tier at £577.35 a month on £64,750. Band 8b entry sits in the 10.7% tier at £593.69 a month on £66,582, while Band 8b intermediate and top sit in the 12.5% tier (£738.50 a month on £70,896 and £805.92 a month on £77,368). Every Band 8c step sits in the 12.5% tier: £828.17 a month on £79,504, £878.60 a month on £84,346 and £954.26 a month on £91,609. The employer contributes 23.7% on top. The 2026/27 tiers are provisional, calculated from the published 2025/26 tiers, not yet published as final.

How do you become a medical physicist?

The usual route is the healthcare science route: a degree in physics or a related physical science, followed by a trainee medical physicist post in a radiotherapy, imaging or nuclear medicine department. Some entrants come through the Scientist Training Programme, which is the postgraduate route into healthcare science and is covered in our clinical scientist salary guide. Professional registration matters in this workforce and adverts set the essential criteria per post, so read them post by post rather than assuming one route fits every vacancy. From Band 7, progression runs to Band 8a section lead posts, then Band 8b departmental leadership and Band 8c head of medical physics roles, with radiotherapy physics, imaging physics and nuclear medicine as the common specialisms within the field.