FAQ: How should private work be charged?
Salaried GP
This will be stated in the written contract. The private fee can either be entirely subsumed within the normal, regular work of the salaried GP, or there could be a provision for private work to be undertaken over and above the their usual work, stating how much of the fee they receive (bearing in mind the practice’s overheads.
Locum GPs
For locum GPs, there is no issue as to whether or not a freelance GP can perform private work in a GP practice.
The practice and locum will need to agree beforehand whether their normal clinical caseload will contain private as well as NHS patients, with adequate time given for the private work in line with what other GPs in the practice would expect.
The practice and locum will also need to agree between them whether private work is charged at the same rate as NHS work.
Model locum Terms and Conditions template
If you’re doing any sort of locum work as part of your portfolio career, you’ll definitely need your own personalised Terms and Conditions to help protect both you and the practice you’re working for.
NASGP’s model T&Cs has been specifically developed for NASGP members by a specialist employment law firm. It allows GP locums to not only fully adopt all its recommendations, but also to add any necessary clauses and tailor it to suit each locum’s personal needs.
You can now set your T&Cs online in NASGP’s LocumDeck.
LocumDeck’s T&Cs generator allows you to set:
- Your own cancellation sliding scale from 0 to 100% of your booked fee for 0 to 28 days in advance.
- Your 14.38% employer’s pension contributions
- Legal employment status
- Tax status, IR35 etc
- Duties (on-call, triage etc)
- Private fees (HGV medical etc)
- Cremation fees
- Payment terms (14 days? 28 days?)
- Plus much more.
As an NASGP member, go to your T&Cs generator, choose your settings and then save. You’ll then be given a unique link, “View my TCs” which will automatically be added to your automated invoices, confirmation emails and session request emails, or you can paste the link into your own GP locum website.
As an added bonus, GP locums can update their T&Cs as often as they like on LocumDeck. Each change is saved in an archive, accessible by practices, for extra confidence.
In our experience, if private patients are seen within the usual agreed hours then the locum would not expect to be paid any extra. But if seen outside the usual agreed hours, the locum would expect to be paid the full private fee, with any practice overheads being offset by the additional service being offered by the locum. It makes the paperwork easier too.
"I have found LocumDeck to be the most helpful and invaluable resource for keeping bookings and accounts. I want to thank you for the wonderful service you provide. Many thanks once again for all the NASGP provides, and particularly for use of the excellent resource LocumDeck has proved to be – something I have recommended to many colleagues who have taken a step to locum work."
Dr Ruth Snowball, GP, Birmingham
