A GP is working as an Uber driver after failing to find work as a family doctor despite having surgeries forcing patients to wait weeks for an appointment.
The doctor is a British medical graduate who qualified as a GP two years ago but has struggled to find work as a locum or salaried GP.
It is understood they considered working in a hospital but decided they could earn as much driving passengers as treating patients – with less stress, less risk and more control over working hours. work.
A colleague told GP Online the GP had been working as a taxi driver in the Midlands for two or three months and was “unsure about returning to clinical practice”.
It comes amid growing reports that jobs for GPs have dried up because GP surgeries cannot afford to employ them and receptionists are encouraging patients to see other GP professionals. health, which are cheaper to use.
There are growing reports that jobs for GPs have dried up because GP practices cannot afford to employ them (stock image).
The GP is understood to have considered working in a hospital, but decided he could earn as much driving passengers as treating patients – with less stress, less risk and more control over working hours. work.
The Mail reported today how patients with cancer symptoms are delaying seeking care because of the difficulties they face getting an appointment with a GP.
Practices have been given £1.4 billion of ring-fenced funding which can be spent on employing more staff, such as pharmacists, medical associates and paramedics – but not GPs or nurses.
This funding, known as the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), has enabled more than 30,000 staff to move into general practice, but doctors say it has also led to crowding out more expensive doctors.
At least one surgical practice in Surrey has announced it is making a number of its GPs redundant due to “new ways of working” which would allow patients to see members of a “wider team”.
Just 46 per cent of GP appointments in England took place with a GP in January, the latest month for which official NHS statistics are available.
Additionally, patients had to wait more than a week for more than a quarter (27.9 percent) of all appointments.
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GPs earn on average £118,100 a year, with those who own their own practice typically earning £153,400, according to NHS Digital.
The GP who knows the Uber driver said: “When we started GP training, stability was the main selling point.
“I have colleagues who work in hospitals and they have moved across the country a lot – but they signed up for this.
“GPs have been told that where you train, you will usually end up working there. It seems like the rug has been swept out from under us.
“General practitioners who have just completed their training are now having a lot of difficulty. My heart is with them. They’re really stuck.
“There are enough general practitioners, but the practices have their hands tied with the financing of the ARRS.”
A survey by GPonline earlier this year found that more than half of locum GPs had struggled to find work in the last 12 months, with many seeing their income fall.
Doctors also told the site that locums who desperately need work are cold-calling GP practices and offering to work at rates “last seen years ago”.
Meanwhile, another GP, unable to find work, was reportedly forced to turn to a food bank for help.
The British Medical Association and Doctors Association UK have linked the lack of GP jobs to ARRS.
Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of the BMA GP committee, said a GP driving a taxi for a living was “extraordinary”.
She said ARRS staff had helped deliver 50 million extra GP appointments promised by the Government – but instead of improving patient outcomes, ‘we have evidence that this broadens the indices of health deprivation and patients’ worry about having to see multiple people.” before reaching a diagnosis.
She added: “From our perspective we are hearing about GPs facing unemployment and underemployment, newly qualified GPs having to take on additional work, examples given to me by some practice managers in Manchester during Uber Drivers’ Weekend.
“Now this is reality. Extraordinary. And why wouldn’t you want to use the Treasury’s earmarked budgets to employ qualified GPs for whom the taxpayer has invested billions of pounds in training? It is not logical.
The BMA has previously said thousands of GPs are currently “underemployed”.
Dr Steve Taylor, DAUK GP spokesperson, said there was growing evidence that GPs were struggling to find work.
He said: “There are more and more reports of doctors not getting the job they want.
“I did a little survey recently: at least 50 percent of GPs were struggling to get the job they wanted.
“Some were locums who weren’t getting as much work as they wanted, others were associates who weren’t getting the hours they wanted, and some were salaried. In summary, it is a lack of funding within core GP services.
He said GPs were increasingly changing roles outside of general practice – in urgent treatment centers and emergency departments. ‘It’s ridiculous. Last year, I received emails daily offering replacement work, but I haven’t received a single email in four months.