Welcome to the NASGP Blog!

 

The only independent representative organisation for locum and salaried GPs

 

Thanks for looking at the NASGP Blog. With over 100 postings and links to both the NASGP website and a host of other websites relevant to Salaried GPs and GP Locums, this is by far the largest resource for Sessional GPs anywhere on the internet. If you like what you see, we’d love you to join, and you can do this very simply for only £8, and remain a member for as long as you like.

Who wouldn’t want to be a locum?

A good locum is never short of work because locuming is a special skill. Walking into an unknown practice to see 30 unknown patients and departing four hours later, leaving not only those patients but also the staff with positive impressions, is a challenge. But for those who can develop the flexibility, being a locum is not just satisfying, it offers an interesting way of life.

GMC registration and ill health

I have not worked for two years and I am wondering whether to let my GMC registration go as money is tight. I am not working due to ill health brought on by stress at work. …..should I let it go?

Time to stand up and be counted

Robert Francis’s report on Mid Staffs calls for a change of culture in the NHS. But whose culture is it that needs to change?

The importance of communication for locums

Every UK doctor will have to meet the professional standards set out in the GMC’s new Good Medical Practice. Charlotte Hudson outlines why good communication is particularly important for sessional GPs.

Locums and the new rules for collection of employer superannuation

Readers will all be aware that from 1st April the rules are changing such that the practices will become responsible for the payment of employer pension contributions.

Locum forms A and B will be retained – but amended . The new forms clearly distinguish between the actual fee and the pensionable pay and the employer contributions.

GMS Practices will receive an extra 0.15% funding intended to reimburse them for this additional cost; PMS practices will get nothing.

Latest Newsletter our now

In our 70th edition, Alex has been doing some out-of-hours, and his written a book about it; Liz offers some words of wisdom about the new NHS superannuation changes; Aimee gives an appraisal of the latest oral anticoagulants; Charlotte gives some great advice on communicating in general practice; Judith on a change in NHS culture; Sonia on letting your GMC registration go; and round-up of sessional GP groups, and lots more.

Extra Locum FormB needed for March 2013

As of 1st April 2013, those freelance GPs working in England on the NHS superannuation scheme will be invoicing practices an additional 12.6% for the employer’s contribution towards their NHS superannuation and, in preparation for this, a directive has been issued by the Scheme Compliance Manager of NHS Pensions that freelance GPs will need to complete an extra ‘March’ B Form to take up the pre- 1st April work payments.

Indications for NOAC usage still limited

Aimee Lettis from the GP Update team gives us short, sharp nuggets of clinical information for sessional GPs.

You are probably aware of the NOACs (novel oral anticoagulants), new drugs that can be used in place of warfarin. You probably won’t be using them very often but here’s an overview to help you when faced with a patient asking to start one of them  or prescribing for the first time. There are three of them: dagigatran, rivaroxaban and apixaban and currently they have the following license/approval: 

What are the tax implications of partnership vs salaried GP?

So if you are ready to settle down in one practice, what are the pros and cons of salaried GP v partnership in tax terms?

As a salaried GP you will be taxed under PAYE, so you will only need to complete a tax return if you have other untaxed income, or income subject to higher rates of tax that is material. You do still have a duty to notify the Revenue if PAYE has not deducted the correct amount of tax. You also need to remember to make a claim for professional subscriptions if they are not met by your employer.

What’s the Point of Swearing?

At my medical school we didn’t swear an oath. Well, not a professional oath. And once I’d seen my name on the pass list the oath I swore was never again to cross the threshold of my training hospital. But the medical school didn’t put on a passing out ceremony and it was left to a group of students to organise a party at which we celebrated our qualification and wished each other well in our careers.