Make sessional GPs a key part of your business, leaders of the UK’s salaried and locum GPs said.
Sessional GPs must be given opportunities to progress their careers, it was voted by British Medical Association members at the Annual Representative Meeting this week.
They voted that sessional GPs should be seen as an asset and employed under equitable terms to salaried GPs, however the BMA must strongly promote the use of the salaried model contract to practice networks and federations.
Mark Porter, BMA council chair, said that this was a move towards welcoming sessional GPs as a “fully forming, fully delivering part of general practice,” which he “absolutely welcomed.”
Dr Vicky Weeks, BMA GP sessional subcommittee chair, said: “Salaried and locum GPs are a growing band within the GP workforce, anecdotally it’s clear these doctors make up more than 50% of the workforce in some areas of the country. Many GPs see a career as a salaried or locum GP as a positive choice and in the BMA’s recent survey of more than 15,560 GPs, close to two thirds did not envisage taking up a GP partnership.
“With this in mind, it is important that networks and federations make sessional GPs an integral part of their planning. We cannot squander the talent and aspirations of these crucial doctors or create a two-tier workforce. As the NHS and general practice change, so must the way in which salaried and locum GPs are perceived,” she said.
