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How to make the most of a career coach

Uncertain work and finances can create stress, writers Dr Caroline Walker, but 2020 might be a fertile year for GP locums to reassess your portfolio career – or even make decisions about a salaried role – with a coach.

GPs are still hard at work – whether the Government knows it or not

Jaws dropped when an MP blithely remarked that GPs could safely ‘recommence’ face-to-face services in a ‘regular’ manner in Parliament the other day, Dr Richard Fieldhouse writes.

Q&A: Dr Chloe Evans on doing GP locum sessions outside your area

NASGP member Dr Chloe Evans splits her time between Oxford and Shetland. She explains how she works across two areas, and how NASGP membership supports her work

Ten tips for starting out as a GP locum in 2020

Richard Fieldhouse lists the skills, products and memberships that will have a positive impact on a new GP locum's career this year

Parents

NASGP membership is completely free from the point you notify us that you’re on parenting leave.

Working as a freelance GP locum

Everything any GP needs to know about stepping into the exciting world of working as a GP locum

The GP locum tutor

An anoymous survey of GP locums finds that the majority of respondents were very happy with their role and recommended a GP locum career to students thanks to flexibility, workload autonomy and patient care, and reduction of admin and bureaucracy. But GP locums also said they faced isolation, disrespect and difficulty accessing knowledge updates

My journey to life as a locum

Like many highly skilled professions, a career in general practice can be a journey with obstacles to overcome, barriers to navigate and choices to make. NASGP member Tina Sumner describes how she came to be working as a GP locum and how NASGP has helped her in that journey.

Meet the locum GP specialist

For years, we’ve been calling for recognition that locuming involves performing in a specialised environment requiring at least a mention in formal GP training. We brought that together in a one-day GP locum masterclass with the BMJ.

Systems to 
improve continuity of care

Following on from her previous article Dis-continuity; putting care into context, Dr Sara Chambers explores the idea that sometimes continuity of care is deployed to paper over the cracks where 'continuity of management' and 'information' is lacking or even absent, and why the locum's perspective needs to be part of a future solution.

Dis-continuity – putting 
care into context

Much is made of continuity of care, but little time is spent examining its weaknesses and exploring the alternatives. In the first of a two-part series, Dr Sara Chambers helps put continuity into context.

Should GP locums use WhatsApp to book work?

What you gain in convenience, you lose in the ability to control significant aspects of your practice

Locuming; it takes skill, needs training

Over 2,000 doctors will have qualified as GPs in the last 12 months, each having spent in the region of two years working in at least one, possibly several, GP surgeries, but including training on how to be a GP locum?

The case for 
GP locum chambers

There are many benefits to being part of a chambers if you are a GP locum, but what can you do if there is no chambers in your local area? Dr Richard Fieldhouse provides some advice.

Instant Book – does it sound too scary?

LocumDeck's Instant Book is the key to giving locums control of their work whilst at the same time giving incredible service to practices.

But what if all GPs were locums?

By the time we qualify as GPs, we have some 20,000 ‘bits’ of clinical information stored in our brains at any one time that we can retrieve 24/7 to make a clinical diagnosis within seconds

Podcast | Why did we call it LocumDeck?

It actually took us a while what to call it. Richard Fieldhouse and Sara Chambers help explain not just why we call it LocumDeck, but also something about what it does and how it empowers locum GPs.

Podcast | Get started as a GP locum – Part 1: Equipment, finding work

Sara Chambers and Richard Fieldhouse talk about getting started as a locum GP from the viewpoint of having just qualified.

Management and information continuity of care

Continuity of care, as defined by care given continuously by one doctor, is one of the most oft talked about modalities of care provided by GPs; it’s the one we feel that’s under threat, the one we’re trying to defend, and the one the government has picked up on to protect and promote. It enables us to build therapeutic relationships, and many patients and GPs value it. Indeed, 50% of our consultations are for chronic conditions, where relationship continuity clearly plays a significant role.

Ensuring a locum GP is a self-employed contractor, not an employee

There are a number of important differences between employees and self-employed contractors

Reducing errors and mistakes arising from lack of continuity of care

There are a number of risks when different healthcare professionals are involved in a patient’s care. Continuity of care can be compromised. What are the risks for locum GPs?

When a locum cancels a session

No matter what the reason, the sudden unavailability of a doctor or nurse is at the very least upsetting for patients, and in some cases can have serious adverse consequences on patient care. Practice staff go frantic having to rearrange appointments or find alternative cover.

Does continuity of care need a reality check?

Continuity of care, defined by care given continuously by one doctor, is one of the most frequently talked about modalities of care provided by GPs; it’s the one we collectively feel that’s under threat, the one we’re trying to defend, and the one the government has picked up on to protect and promote.

There has to be an alternative

For many, early retirement seems the only escape from the hamster-wheel of endless effort. And now the Government threatens not only to add out of hours back to the workload of individual practices, but also longer hours and night-time responsibility too.

Setting up a limited company for locum work for GPs

You can potentially save tax/NIC by putting freelance income through a limited company: however, you are not permitted to pension such income through the NHS scheme.

Who wouldn’t want to be a locum?

Walking into an unknown practice to see 30 unknown patients and departing four hours later, leaving not only those patients but also the staff with positive impressions, is a challenge. But for those who can develop the flexibility, being a locum is not just satisfying, it offers an interesting way of life.

GP locums need dedicated training

GP locums – When to blow the whistle in the NHS

Should you 'blow the whistle' if you suspect a practice is failing? Dr Judith Harvey provides valuable advice.  

GP locums – achieve a good work-life balance

All too often, being a GP locum is not about working when and where you want, says Dr Judith Harvey.

Clarifying employer’s contributions for long-term freelance GP locums

Paying tax as a locum GP

Tax avoidance has been a prominent topic in the news in recent weeks, with reports of high earners paying minimal tax. What is the background to this?

RCGP to spearhead solutions for Sessional GP isolation

The formal report is now published here, and includes information on how the RCGP are putting together a working group to tackle these issues one and for all.

Going locum

Isolation remains key issue for sessional GPs

Paula Wright, Chairman of North-east Employed and Locum GPs, takes us through the findings of the recent report into Sessional GPs from the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund.

RCGP to lead freelance locum GP working group

Survey into locum pay

Skills and training for locum GPs

Ubani wake up call to enfranchise GP locums fully into NHS

There’s still life in ‘Death in Service’