Locum insurance can be valuable for a practice and its GPs, but we know that there is a whole range of daily issues that surround a practice – and not least is recruitment and the need to find locums.
Recently we set up some locum insurance for a hard-working GP and, as we like to do, at the end of the conversation I asked him if there was anything else I could help him with.
He asked me – in his own words – to ‘knit’ him a couple of GPs. I wish I could.
The GP recruitment dilemma
He had tried everything to recruit GPs to his practice and nothing was working. This meant that he and his colleagues were not only working flat out to cover the vacancies, but also drawing on increasingly expensive locums to cover some of the shortfall.
As all of you working in General Practice know, this is a situation being replicated throughout the UK. The upshot is that, as a resource that’s in demand, locums can virtually name their price.
The burden of illness in the workplace
Practices are therefore on the back foot when they need to bring in a locum and they have little or no negotiating power. If they need someone, they need him or her now, and the cost has to be a secondary consideration.
However, in reality cost can’t simply be set aside as a ‘secondary issue’. GPs have to balance the books, and funds for a locum may not be unavailable. Gaps which locums could fill are often plugged by already overworked partners.
GPs are not superhuman. Like the common manthey can suffer the ‘normal’ range of illnesses that we all do. And when GPs unexpectedly get diagnosed with an illness where they cannot work, picture the situation: an already stretched practice is hit with one or two key staff absences through sickness and the workload becomes untenable for the remaining partners.
Returning power to the practice
So where does Practice Cover fit in this?
We specialise in locum insurance for GPs and their practices. This insures the partners – and anyone else at the practice - in case they are ill and can’t work.
When it comes to vacancies at your practice, our insurance can’t meet the cost of a locum. However, it can provide cover for doctors, nurses and staff members who fall ill and can’t work – or potentially when there are absences for other reasons, such as an accident, maternity/paternity or even jury service.
Our locum insurance pays an agreed sum to the practice (after expiry of the practice’s selected deferment period) for up to 52 weeks (or until the person returns to work, if sooner).
We can’t knit GPs, or nurses, but we can give you the money to go out and buy them. It’s a cash sum that the practice could choose to spend on a locum... but in fact, it comes with no restriction on what you do with it. So the practice could just as easily spend the cash on recruitment fees, overtime for staff or any other means that would relieve the practice’s burden after unexpected illness or accident strikes.
To help you make sense of locum insurance, call us on 023 8051 3286.
The views presented are solely those of the author on behalf of Practice Cover Limited and they do not constitute individual advice.
Practice Cover is a trading name of Practice Cover Limited and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
