GP locums should do ‘minimum fair share’ of admin, a new report by the health select committee has advised.
At the beginning of its summary, the fourth ‘future of general practice’ report notes that: “High reliance on the use of locum doctors, and the number of newly qualified GPs choosing to work in such roles rather than as salaried GPs or as partners… is a symptom rather than the cause of the problem. Urgent work needs to be done to stop a bidding war for the services of locums and establish requirements for a minimum fair share of administrative duties.”
The report has repeatedly emphasised that GPs often choose locum work to seek the flexibility that partnered or salaried roles don’t offer at the moment, and to manage workload safely.
The report notes that GPs often work outside their paid sessions in order to complete administrative work – for example one GP told the committee she works two unpaid sessions a week on paperwork.
MPs also noted that GPs face increased demand and complexity in their clinical work.
GP locums also have spoken out own their concerns.
NASGP member and GP locum Dr Regine Wiessler said: “In many practices it may be difficult to slot locums into admin work as the workflow directs admin items to a permanent GP. Most practices, I imagine, would benefit more from GP locums seeing patients and the permanent GP doing the admin work (especially if colleagues are away and admin volume increases). The concept of a GP locum for admin work is interesting but this would only be useful in a practice in which the GP locum has a thorough understanding of the workflow.
“Often there is a long learning curve to this knowledge. Every practice has a different workflow and there are changes with time. I remember working with a GP locum who proactively actioned results only to make mistakes. This GP locum did not know what we had discussed and planned.
“As mentioned in the article, administrative tasks in surgery are often not easy or quick. They can be very complex and have to be done correctly otherwise patients can come to harm. I am not convinced MPs always understand of the complexities of GP administrative tasks.”
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, chair of NASGP, said: “So-called GP ‘admin’ tasks sound like it’s simple filing, but responding to referral letters, implementing convoluted clinical management plans, reviewing complex prescriptions, assimilating pathology results – and so much more – is difficult enough when you know the patient well and have an ongoing therapeutic relationship with them.
“But when you don’t know the patient, if the clinical record is light on detail, and you are not made privy to the multitudes of practice-specific information, performing so-called ‘admin’ tasks can be fraught with risk.
“Pitting GPs against GPs in this manner is not helpful. NASGP has plenty of GP locums on LocumDeck who put themselves forward to perform whole days of ‘admin’ to help practices out. The health select committee could do much more for their constituents by understanding and supporting GP locums, rather than seeing us as a problem that needs fixing.”