Paula Wright, Chairman of North-east Employed and Locum GPs, takes us through the findings of the recent report into Sessional GPs from the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund.
Having spent many years supporting our sessional GP group in a variety of roles as treasurer, website manager and chairperson, I was delighted to have the opportunity to be involved in a research project focusing on support structures for sessional GPs. Our sessional GP group was locally recognised as providing important professional support, including job and educational alerts, and members had quadrupled in numbers since we had commissioned its website. So when the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund (RMBF) commissioned us to carry out this research, the first time these groups have been studied formally, this was a subject close to my heart. The research was a mixed methods study involving a literature review, focus groups and telephone interviews with sessional GPs, and online surveys to deanery educators, sessional GP groups and locum chambers.
