GP locums who are owed thousands in pay have launched a campaign against the provider eHarley Street, Pulse reports.
GPs worked at practices across Wales and the six leading the campaign were owed £32,000 in unpaid invoices.
Dr Samantha Jenkins, a GP locum who had worked at Blaenavon and Brynmawr practices, told Pulse she was owed £9,500 for work completed in September and October. As a result of delayed payments she is now travelling two and a half hours to work in West Wales, which she said is “quite frankly unsustainable with young children”.
The BBC has also covered the story.
The news breaks after GP appointments broke a record high in October of 38.6m, rising to over 40m if the stats include appointments for Covid-19 vaccination. At the same time, many GP locums are reporting poor availability of locum work
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “This story illustrates perfectly how GPs locums are exposed and vulnerable performing the invaluable work they do, keeping busy practices running, providing access to patients in need, in an overstretched and under-resourced healthcare system.
“It also illustrates how fundamental it is to support staff, making them feel valued and ensuring the conditions they work in are appropriate. A significant part of that is ensuring that they can maintain their livelihood by paying them on time.
“Lastly, this story confirms the importance of a clear audit trail, all the way from robust T&CS, ensuring there’s an audit trail of any terms and conditions, and clear invoices with stated terms of payment – all of course a benefit of membership NASGP provides to all its members through LocumDeck.”
