03453503655
info@locuminsurance.co.uk
Working As A Locum GP: The Pros And Cons
03453503655
info@locuminsurance.co.uk
If you are qualified as a GP, you may very well wish to work as a locum rather than joining a practice full time. There are several advantages to working as a locum, not the least of which is the money. Locum doctors are paid quite a bit more than incumbent GPs and in general are better paid than hospital locums. This is because hospital locums are salaried and so they are paid net of income tax and national insurance. As a GP locum, you are self-employed and so to some extent can dictate your own terms. Since you are paid gross, there are a number of expenses for which you can claim which a hospital locum cannot.
03453503655
info@locuminsurance.co.uk
These include things such as travel expenses, running a car, telephone costs, stationery, printing costs, accountants’ fees, and even overnight stays, although the latter is often paid for by the surgery for which you are working if you have to live far away from home. If you are single and enjoy visiting different parts of the country, then working as a locum can be a great alternative to working as a partner in a practice, but it is not all pros. There are some cons too, one of which is that there is no guarantee of work. So, you could find that you have no work for a couple of weeks. This is less likely to occur if you work through an agency, which will usually have plenty of jobs available. Another thing is that as a GP locum you will have to set up your own pension scheme, whereas hospital locums have this built into their salaries. Working as a locum in a hospital can also incur some hostility from the incumbent doctors, because you are being paid more than they are for doing the same job. There sometimes seems to be an attitude that since you are being paid more you should be doing more. Locums are also
03453503655
info@locuminsurance.co.uk
often stigmatised as second-class doctors, without any particular responsibility. There can also be an attitude that working for money as opposed to working for the glory of the job is somehow a form of heresy. There is also the situation where patients may regard you as “not my real doctor” and book in to see their “own” doctor when he or she returns.
Many Locums Are Women Working Part-Time Many locums are women who are working part-time because it fits in with their lives. So, they can work perhaps two or three full sessions a week and have three or four days off to look after children, or whatever else they need to do. Locum work is also flexible, and it gives the participant the opportunity to see many different aspects of medicine and general practice without any long-term commitment. However, there are other disadvantages of working as a locum such as the fact that there is no paid annual leave, no maternity benefits, no postgraduate education allowance, and there is also no continuity of patient care.
03453503655
info@locuminsurance.co.uk
Working as a locum also gives you the opportunity to see how different practices work in clinical and practice management. Since you are self-employed when working as a locum, you really do need to take out doctor locum insurance to cover you in case you are sick and unable to work for a long period. Of course, if you run a general practice, you should also have doctor locum insurance to cover the additional costs of hiring a locum if you or one of your partners goes sick and is off for any length of time. This will cover the considerable extra costs of hiring a locum as a stand-in, because in some areas the daily costs of a locum are running at as high as £1,000 a day.
03453503655
info@locuminsurance.co.uk
Contact Us Address:- 24 Main Street, Cross hills, Keighley, West Yorkshire, UK BD208TF Landline number:- 0345 3503655 Website:- https://www.locuminsurance.co.uk/ Email:- info@locuminsurance.co.uk Twitter:- https://twitter.com/ApproachableIFA