The majority of sessional GPs choose their job for its flexibility and work-life balance – not because of a lack of partnerships, a British Medical Association (BMA) survey of 15,560 sessional GPs reveals.
More than seven-in-10 locum GPs felt this way and 58% of salaried GPs agreed. Only 3% of locum GPs and 7% of salaried are working as sessionals because there are no partnerships available in their area, the survey found.
Vicky Weeks, BMA General Practitioners Committee (GPC) sessional GPs subcommittee chair said: “These figures show that working as a sessional GP is a positive career choice for a high proportion of this group of doctors… the majority of sessional GPs do not want a partnership and are attracted to the role because of specific positive features of working as a sessional GP.”
However, the survey found 44% of practice employed salaried GPs want a partnership in the future, while 23% cent of locum GPs have this aspiration.
Meanwhile, 22% of practice-employed salaried GPs, 16% of locums and 6% of contractor GPs want to develop new specialist skills in the next five years, the survey suggests.
