If you work in the healthcare industry then you will be only
too aware of the difficulties arising from the recent NHS reforms. As a knock-on effect of this, a wave of early
retirements and increased pressure on the general practice workforce has led to
vacancies at GP surgeries across the country.
This rise in vacancies has unsurprisingly led to a surge in
demand for locum GPs. In a recent survey
by Medeconomics.co.uk, 53% of the locums questioned said demand for their
services had increased, despite the fact that over 60% of them said they were
aware that practices in their area were trying to reduce costs.
Whilst some practices may view the custom of hiring a locum
GP to be an additional squeeze on budgets, at a time when things are already
stretched, the more forward-thinking surgeries are realising that this is the
best way forward. Hiring locums enables
the GP practice to deliver a constantly high level of care and service to
patients and can help to fill those temporary gaps caused by holidays, sick
leave or recent departures.
GP practices may be desperate to balance the books and make
their resources stretch as far as possible but it seems many will have little
choice but to turn to the services of a Locum GP. Yes, practices have had their budgets cut but
they will continue to put the patient first, even if this does mean incurring
higher costs in the short term. After
all, hiring locums is a great way to ease pressure on the workload of other
practice GPs whilst actively recruiting for permanent GPs to join the workforce
in place of those who have retired or departed.
Despite the cost element, there are many reasons why practices will benefit from hiring locums, these may include:
- Quick and short term solution when there is no time to recruit for permanent positions
- The locum agency will work with the client to find the most suitable candidate for vacancy
- All applicants are screened by the agency which delivers peace of mind to practice managers
- Locum GPs can offer a fresh and sometimes more thorough approach to patients as they have had no prior contact with them and will therefore need to get more background information on their condition.
