Stand-in GPS handed £1,000 a day to plug surgeries’ gaps

GPS are being offered more than £1,000 for a day’s work as “desperate” surgeries try to plug staff shortages.

Estimates suggest one in four GP posts could be vacant in 10 years, raising concerns around patient safety and quality of care.

Locum GPS cover shifts when practices are short staffed. Primary Care Medical Chambers, a locum agency, said it had secured “lucrative contracts” to supply GPS to practices across the country.

In an email to doctors seen by Pulse, the agency says it seeks “GPS willing and interested in earning in excess of £1,000 per day”. The agency said the rate would make the locum “one of the highest earning GPS in the country”.

“Naturally, this may require you to travel and work slightly further afield so contribution towards travel expenses can be organised,” the email said, adding that shifts at that rate may be ad hoc or “three-month block bookings”.

Dr Abbie Brooks, a GP partner in York, said the rate is “not affordable” but “desperate” practices would pay it.

“From a practice perspective, we find it really difficult to recruit locums and obviously there’s a shortage of GPS so I guess it’s a sign of the times and it’s a sellers’ market,” she told Pulse.

Other doctors suggested the £1,000 figure could be the “tip of the iceberg”, as agencies could charge fees on top.

The £1,000 rate is believed to be the first of its kind in mainland UK. In June it was reported that GPS in Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, were offered £1,000 a day to work at a rural practice.

Analysis by the Health Foundation suggests the Government is unlikely to reach its 2019 manifesto pledge of hiring 6,000 new GPS by 2023-24.