Talking to a GP, I asked him how the practice would cope if one of their 5 GP partners was off work ill for a while.
As you’d expect, he said that, for a few weeks, they’d rally round to cover their colleague’s sessions. In such a large practice, that’s certainly feasible for a period and we talked about how long they’d be able to rally round and what toll this would have on doctors who were already fully committed.
He acknowledged that, yes, it could be a strain. He also agreed that after a while the goodwill felt towards the missing doctor might dissipate under a cloud of ‘rally round fatigue’.
So did the discussion to come round to insurance? No, they didn’t need insurance to cover the GP’s absence as they had a trump card up the practice sleeve.
He looked around to check that no-one else was listening, lowered his voice and told me that the partners had been saving up for 20 years to make sure they’d be able to afford a long-term locum. So how much had they got? £200,000? £500,000? More?
I’m afraid not. They had £40,000. Enough to pay for one locum for less than 6 months. Once the pot was exhausted it would mean a return to ‘rallying round’ or further locum costs being met by the partners – and another 20 years of saving up.
Assuming, in simple terms that they were saving at a rate of £2,000 a year how much locum insurance would a yearly premium of £2,000 buy this GP practice?
With tax relief on the premium, an annual outlay of £2,000 means that, with Practice Cover locum insurance, they could insure 5 doctors for £1,500 a week each (with a 4 week deferment period). This would mean if any one of the 5 is ill for more than a month, the practice would get £1,500 a week for up to a year, to pay for a locum (or to reimburse colleagues who provide cover). The pricing of Practice Cover’s locum insurance is both age and gender neutral. The appeal of this particularly comes into its own in a group situation such as this.
And what to do with the £40,000? Well, it’s a nice problem to have...!
Author: Lynda Cox, April 2012
The opinions presented in this blog are solely those of the author on behalf of Practice Cover Limited and they do not constitute individual advice.
