Locum A and B forms now downloadable from the NASGP website [more...]
 

Make sure your practice managers give you a unique username and password - especially if you're Freelance - when using their clinical systems [more...]
 

Big Changes are happening to the administration of the NHS Pension Scheme across the UK [more...]
 

Updated the IT section to include several crib sheets specifically for freelance GPs, including EMIS, Torex and Vision [more...]

I attended the RCGP’s Revalidation Stakeholder Group meeting and just wanted to report back a few points from the meeting.

• Still looking like revalidation will be every 5 years.
• Annual appraisal will still, somehow, be part of revalidation.
• The college is looking at a system of ‘credits’ – at least 50 per year, with a total of 250 credits needed for revalidation.
• The college is looking at a ‘menu’ of areas for individual assessment such as referral information, complaints, significant events, case discussions, videoing and some tried-and-tested types of multi-source feedback but still much work needed.
• PACT data and analysis of QOF data will be used too, but obviously not yet much use to freelance GPs!
• Medical record review may be an option, but practices will need to ensure locums have proper usernames and passwords.
• Piloting – all this needs to be tested on GPs (guinea-pigs) and we’ve already offered to provide volunteers from our membership who may be interested in piloting.

The next meeting of the group is in May and we’ll let you know more after that meeting.

Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP CEO
 

The National Audit Office has today issued its report on GP pay and, tucked away in the report, is the startling fact that the average pay of a salaried GP is £46,905, having only risen by 3 per cent since the new contract was introduced, compared to 58% (from £72,011 in 2002-03 to £113,614 in 2005-06) for GP Principals. This figure does not, however, represent the average full time salary. The results of a workload survey published in July 2007 by the Information Centre for Health and Social Care indicated that the average salaried GP works 23.8 hours per week. This suggests that a full time salaried GP receives around £74,000 per annum.

For the full report see the NAO website. See also Pulse for information about the Salaried GP survey.

Extending GP Hours

Often we are faced these days both as professionals and in our private lives with conflicting interests. Those that affect our purse and those those affect our conscience and the decision is not always simple. We are counselled as professional doctors to act with integrity and the buzz word in appraisals is probity which is, for many, an ill-defined and misunderstood term. I was pondering this when the recent issue of extended GP hours came up with the impasse between what government wants, and what the doctors believe is reasonable. The ensuing BMA poll, which I hope most of you will have received and completed by now, is offering GP’s Hobson’s choice. How does this affect us though as Sessional GP’s? We don’t have fixed surgeries or staff to manage. We will not have to divert funds and time from existing practise. Will it indeed affect us at all? Should we in fact complete the poll?

Well, the outcome may provide locums opportunities to provide services outside of core hours with the financial implications of that service provision depending how you value your “free time”. It may of course result in already hard-pressed partners and salaried GP’s providing the service themselves. Once again this will benefit the salaried GP financially. So much for the “dollars and cents” (no the Americans haven’t taken over our currency yet!) but what about the moral issue of the failure for this to be adequately negotiated with further erosion of the autonomy of British General Practice and respect for General Practitioners – who are, by the way, independent contractors to the NHS.

Our concerns at NASGP are primarily to address ourselves to the interests of Sessional General Practitioners (i.e. Freelance GPs and Salaried GPs) and, if the current moves by government were to result in gain for our members then surely, we should be welcoming the opportunity for further employment. There are, however, fundamental issues at stake here and this brings me full circle to my opening line on conflicting interests. Whilst completing the poll may mean little to your personal concerns as Sessional GP’s, the fact that a poll has become necessary emphasises the gravity with which the BMA view this issue, not in isolation but as part of a greater erosion of, as I perceive it, respect for the profession’s ability to manage medical practice in the interest of their patients.

I am not suggesting here which way you should vote on this. I am simply raising the point that we need to be aware and awake to the threat to our colleagues, and therefore ultimately to us who are employed or contracted by them because this will not be the end of the story!

This poll will affect you all as much as it will our Non Sessional Colleagues.


Michael Uprichard
NASGP Chairman
chairman@nasgp.org.uk

Updated list of Sessional GP Groups - new contacts and removed some 'expired groups' [more...]
 

Two great offers for NASGP members:

• Free subscription to eGuidelines.co.uk
• 50% discount for subscriptions to Update [more...]

Updated the links to all three GP Magazines in the FAQ section [more...]

The ballot for NASGP council is now open - all members are eligible to vote on-line until 30th September 2007. Just log onto the members area.

The Department of health is conducting a review of the Performers List (to which NASGP contributed a response in May) and details of the review so far can be found on their site [more...] (external link).
 

Pulse, GP and Doctor are now only being distributed regularly to ‘GP principals’, with only the surplus being randomly distributed to sessional GPs. This decision has been taken by their publishers as an economic and environmental decision, as so many have been going to practices and have remained unopened.

We have been liaising with the distributors, and have come up with a way that should help us sessional GPs receive copies much more frequently, but it will require a little effort on your behalf.

We’re therefore asking all members to print or forward this letter on to any practice manager at practices that appear to have a surplus of Pulse/GP/Doctor. All they have to do is complete the letter and send it to the distributor. This will free up spare copies, and so create a greater amount of copies to sessional GPs. Hopefully, there will be enough spare copies in the system so that we eventually all get one a week!

Download the letter here

• as a word file
• as an Adobe pdf file

What's happened to Pulse, GP & Doctor - they're now being rationed. So what can we do about it? We're currently in direct contact with the distribution company, and are hatching some plans as to what other action to take...watch this space.

NASGP member Rhys Baptiste has let us know about his personal website, which we've added to a new member's link section [more...]

A new group! Newham Sessional GP Group led by Osman Bhatti LG [More...]

Updated 'Groups' - Mellany Ambrose has taken over from Margaret Coffey running the Barnet & Enfield SDLG [More...]

Looks like we've covered all the errors in the BMA Locum spreadsheet. Thanks again to NASGP member Nick Mawby for tidying this up for us [more...]

The March BNF is now in stock at the DH, so copies are being organised to be distributed to our English Freelance GP members. Not Freelancing in England...? [more...]

Thanks to new member Barbara who has pointed out that our 'Frequently Asked Question' on free publications was out of date - now duly corrected and updated! [more...]

25th November 2006

GPs working in Northern Ireland are now eligible to join the NHS pension scheme and to have this backdated to 1 April 2001. In addition, GPs who were already scheme members are allowed to ‘pension’ their GP locum earnings from 1 April 2002 [more...]
 

A small update to our Freelance GP Booking form from a new member-to-be [more...]
 

We have now completed our consultation on the Chief Medical Officer's report 'Good Doctors, Safer Patients' and will be sending this in time for the final closing date of 10th November 2006. You can read our report in full [here...]

EMIS have developed a new training package exclusively for Freelance GPs [more...]

A new Sessional GP Group "Haverstock Non-Principals Group" is added to our listing [more...]

We met up with the GMC as planned last week to discuss our plans for revalidating Sessional GPs [more...] 

We're meeting the General Medical Council next Friday 21st July with the GPC Sessional GP Sub-Committee to talk about ways of enabling Freelance GPs to work within the GMC's 'approved working environments'. We've created a new document, and will be grateful for any comments or suggestions from our members that will help us to get our message across [more...]

NASGP affiliate Freelance GP Scheme - aFGP - consultation launched [More...]

We've added a 'Feedback Form' section to our CPD area. [More...]

Do Freelance GPs need to register for VAT? We've added this answer to our Frequently Asked Questions. [More...]

We are delighted to welcome two new members to our council. The first is Jean Ker as a representative from the RCGP. Jean is currently the Director of the Clinical Skills Centre at the University of Dundee and also works 2 sessions a week in General Practice in Dundee. Jean’s main interest has been around patient safety, reflective practice and developing clinical skills standards. Our second addition is Peter Taylor from Shrewsbury, who has been elected unopposed through our membership ballot. Peter has worked as a partner for 4 years, followed by four years as a full-time locum and now works in a part-time salaried post, continuing to work his remaining sessions as a locum. Peter feels that, despite being better off than 10 years ago, we’re still "undervalued, treated inequitably and our needs ignored or dealt with as afterthoughts. We need a strong, active national body that will work closely with the GPC Sessional GP Subcommittee, but which can speak and campaign for us independently.”

Updated IT section to include TPP SystemOne [More...]

Updated Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I register for National Insurance as a Freelance GP?
• How should I reduce risk Out of Hours?

We have been working with the MPS recently to update our 'complaints' document, and we're now proud to publish this [more...]

The RCGP North & West London Faculty held a one day conference in October 2005 entitled "Understanding Sessional General Practitioners" [more...]

The NHS Pensions Agency have just published their latest Technical Newsletter, clarifying several points relating to Freelance GPs and Out of Hours work [more...]

If you are a Sessional GP working in the South West of England, then you are invited to the  South West Peninsula Deanery Sessional GP Conference on Thursday 30th March 2006.

• invitation
• programme

Contact Vik Mohan for more details.
 

Added a new Risk Management section to the Frequently Asked Questions section.
 

If you've ever done any freelance general practice work, you may have heard rumours that PCTs would stop paying the employers contribution as from this April (basically, the same rumours as last year!) with the onus instead being on the freelance GP's employing practice.

Fortunately, it is just a rumour [more...]
 

Representatives from the NASGP met last month with the General Medical Council to question them on their proposals relating to 'GMC approved environments'. See their reply and yesterday's press release [more...]

If you're not on a performers list, or know of ANY GP who may not be e.g. because they're on a 'career break', it's imperative that you or your colleagues not on the list inform the GMC before 31st March 2006. [more...]

Well done to NASGP member Harvey Gordon who has one the draw for the TomTom Go 300 Satellite Navigation System for responding to the Medeconomics survey.
 

We're pleased to announce the launch of our new NASGP Discussion Forum, intended to complement the www.doctors.org.uk discussion forum.

Whereas the doctors.org.uk forum is for all doctors discussing any topic and encourages debate of any description, this forum aims to provide a more relevant and less busy area for NASGP members with an emphasis on friendly, courteous threads (life is otherwise too short and stressful as it is).

Hence, our rules are somewhat different. We have a zero tolerance policy for rudeness of any description, and can block members from using this forum if necessary. But as NASGP members are all Top Bananas, it's very unlikely we'll need to do this.

We'll also be regularly pruning the discussions to improve their relevance to other forum users too.

So, give the forum a go and see what you think!
 

Added 'Are Freelance GPs entitled to holiday/sick pay?' (thanks to Dr Ahmed for your question!) [more...]

We received a reply to our letter to the GMC today (see 15th September 2005). [more...]

Due to popular request, added GPnotebook search to the border on the right.
 

The General Medical Council is on to Freelance GPs, with their announcement that it will "change the basis on which a doctor’s license to practise is approved in order to include the requirement to provide information which will support a more risk-based approach to regulation" [more...]

• See our letter to the GMC

Bored of filling in those silly boring pension forms? Just know there has to be a better way? There is! We’ve developed a simple spreadsheet for members to download from our website superannuation section. [More...]

Added new Frequently Asked Question "How can I get hold of Medicines for my Doctor's Bag?" [more...]

We've just taken delivery of 1,000 brand new NASGP Standardised Practice Induction Packs (having been out of them for months...sorry). [more...]

The government is proposing the launch of a listening exercise in connection with a detailed consultation on the draft White Paper entitled Your Health, Your Care, Your Say: Improving Community Health and Care Services.

The result of the White Paper is likely to shape primary care for some years to come, and it is important that all Sessional GPs take the opportunity to feed in their views at this early stage.

The RCGP is particularly keen to have the views and input of Sessional GPs and has asked us to encourage as many members as possible to take part in their 'Call For Ideas'.

There are 12 simple questions on the RCGP website, and we'd encourage as many Sessional GPs as possible to complete the survey.

• We've just sent our usual database of English Freelance GPs to the Department of Health for the distribution of BNFs, which they tell us should reach the recipients during October. If you (i.e. any Sessional GP) haven't received yours by then, see our FAQs on how to get one.

• Do Freelance GPs need to register with the Data Protection Act? New FAQ added [more...]

• The London Deanery have issued guidance on appraisal for their Sessional GPs [more...]

• Some SGPs have to have TWO appraisals a year - what's that all about?! [More...]

• Updated Prescribing FAQ [More...]

• New FAQs on the BMA model contract and NHS Appraisal [More...]
• Added some more IT cribsheets for EMIS LV/PCS and iSOFT Premiere Synergy from Insight Solutions [More...]