Why GP Locums are important?

In the UK, there are an estimated more than 15,000 GPs working as Locums. They comprise a quarter of the general practice workforce in the region and attend to up to 36 million patients each year. A Locum is a qualified doctor who offers provisional replacement or covers sick leaves, staff holidays, or other professional commitments. Sometimes, newly qualified doctors work as locums to gain experience and get familiar with hospital environment. There are also more experienced doctors who wish to work flexibility, or doctors from overseas and retired doctors who take up locum positions.

Dr Richard Fieldhouse, a GP Locum and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Sessional GPs, in an interview said, “I’ve seen a jump in the number of GP partners leaving their regular practices mid-career to become locums, mostly from the sheer burden of extra paperwork and clinics they have to do, also, many more GPs these days are female. Working freelance as a locum can offer those with families a much better work-life balance.”

Although locums are skilled to the same extent as other doctors, lots of people are reluctant to perceive the stand-in. This is perhaps because locums tend to make the spotlight only when things go wrong. Though the General Medical Council didn’t gather figures about objections against GP Locums, experts believe public perception is that numbers are high.

‘This idea that locums are somehow second-rate doctors is unfair,’ says Dr Fieldhouse. ‘I hear so much about patients wanting continuity of care — which is true — but with continuity can sometimes comes complacency. If a GP is seeing a patient repeatedly about a problem, it can sometimes be hard to spot what is wrong because the changes creep up over time. A locum might walk in and spot it straight away. They may also find it easier to say a difficult thing such as the patient needs to lose weight or give up smoking.”

Deputy Chairman of the British Medical Association’s General Practice Committee, Dr Richard Vautry, concurs that sometimes considering a different doctor/opinion, whether from within the practice or somewhere else, can be a good thing.

Further, Shehnaz Somjee, a surgeon and chair of the Locum Doctors’ Association, a professional body representing 4,000 locums, state that locums or stand-in doctors are frequently subject to more careful scrutiny than regular GPs. “Locums have to prove themselves in every job. When you start a new post, all the other staff eyes your work through the microscope. If any slight mistake is made, it creates immediate alarm. I know one locum who, because of his wide experience in different general practices, was able to spot an adverse drug reaction when the patient’s own doctor failed to do so.”

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For more detail please Visit our job board at http://www.yourworldhealthcare.co.uk/medical-vacancies/gp_locums/.

Short Term Employment for Long Term Benefits

Finding a job that suits an individual’s interest is a daunting task. The task becomes even more complicated when it is about searching for a job in the medical sector. It has been seen that there are very few recruitment agencies specialising in the health care sector. As a result, the search for doctors jobs becomes more challenging. Like many other industries, people working in the healthcare sector also need to take time off from work for many different reasons. Maternity leave, holiday time or even emergency situations to name but a few.

Since medical situations will not wait for the return of the doctors that are away on leave, their positions need to be filled right away so that patients do not suffer.

Locum positions can last from a week through to months, depending on the reason the employer needs the help. Common reasons for seeking a locum include keeping a busy clinic afloat while a doctor or physician is on maternity or other medical leave.  Sometimes it’s as simple as covering for a doctor who is on a vacation, when failing to do so would cause the employer to become backed up. Since most medical settings are really businesses as well, they are therefore profit-driven. Some locums even travel the country moving from one locum job to another.

For hospitals and healthcare facilities that are looking for short term replacement physicians; recruitment companies are the best places to source physicians who are willing to fill in these temporary vacancies. Locum  Physician jobs are mutually beneficial for both physicians and medical facilities. The facilities not only get to keep their patient levels up  in the absence of their regular physician, but also get a chance of working with many gifted doctors, whenever they have a vacancy. If they like the way things work out with a particular physician working on as a Locum, the administration is in a position to offer the doctor full time employment at the end of the contract, otherwise they simply release them.

There are many advantages of working as a GP Locum, such as:

·         Temporary employment and a chance to broaden skills whilst waiting or looking for a permanent job.

·         Allows those relatively new to the profession to utilise newly learnt skills instantly within various medical environments.

·         GP Locum work can be combined to allow time for other employment or activities outside of medicine.

·         The independence to work flexibly where and when you choose.

·         Variety of working in different locations and exploring career options whilst travelling.

GP Locums are paid by the day and don’t have to rely on a restricted annual salary. It is up to the individual if they want to increase their availability for work or not. Locum doctor jobs offer flexibility to the professionals. Another huge benefit of working as a locum is you can gain experience by working in different organisations in different areas. It is worth mentioning that the experience one can gain working as a locum is generally not possible for normal permanent doctors. Thus, if you are getting an opportunity to work as a locum then you should not think twice and avail its benefit to the fullest.

For the latest GP locum vacancies, please visit http://www.yourworldhealthcare.co.uk