Forget about the NHS 10 Year Health Plan for a moment, and instead how about hearing some reflections from a 10 year relationship anniversary with a practice I regularly work for in a locum capacity?
I started off my GP career as a salaried GP, but after relocating down to the South Coast, I decided to locum to get a feel for the local area before jumping in with both feet.
Initially, I was put in touch with the senior partner of this practice through a mutual friend, and almost instantly he invited me to pop into the surgery to meet the team. After a quick coffee and chat, which was essentially a mutual evaluation, they booked me in for a couple of locum shifts. It was their practice policy to cover each GP’s annual leave with a locum, rather than struggling internally to manage the workload, and I was told that each partner was happy to sacrifice some of their drawings for the sake of their wellbeing, and that of their employed GPs whom they wanted to look after. That all sounded very promising to me.