Newly qualified GPs now working in Tesco!

[chocolatenutcase]

This makes me so sad. The state of nhs funding particularly funding to primary care means that newly qualified GPs can't get jobs in the U.K. Sad? No actually I am absolutely furious that the British public are denied decent health care.

There are vacancies for GP's. My DH surgery has a locum at the moment and they are advertising for a permanent GP. Apparently locums get paid more.

Absolutely nothing my dh ,works for them but it's a low paid job and if you have trained as a GP its seems a,waste .

There might be vacancies but nowhere near as many vacancies as GPs looking for jobs.

This is a scandal which is going under the radar. Those of you who think this isn't a thing need to get Googling GP redundancies, lack of posts and falling locum rates, There are easy to find reports confirming this.
Basically NHS England has offered inducements to practices under ARRS which is funding for alternative roles. This means practices get grants to employ PAs, paramedics, pharmacists - anything but GPs.
That means locums are being asked to lower their rates to compete and largely the number of roles available are fewer. There have been redundancies and I believe also that one of the largest firms of online docs is seeking to lose half its workforce.
If I can simplify it for the sceptics, it is as if teachers were systematically being replaced by teaching assistants and no one has noticed because there is still a person in post.

And Joe public was conned into thinking these other hcp's were in addition to a GP to cover specific conditions

I am nowhere near London and would sign up tomorrow for me and the dc to see a competent, available private family doctor. I'd make lifestyle changes to afford it. the NHS is playing dangerous games with my health and am having to get private scans anyway.

Nothing is wrong with a job in Tesco, my sister works for them.
However if you've spent 5 intense years at university with nearly £100k of student debt, you wouldn't expect to work in a supermarket on just over minimum wage. Also the F1 and F2 years working shifts as a junior doctor in hospital.
Also it's hardly good value for the tax payer when a huge student loan isn't repaid, is it?

You forget that as well as the individuals themselves paying for their training including their degree we the taxpayer do so as well.

Basically it is a waste of everyones money for a trained doctor to work in any other job but as a doctor in the NHS.

@CremeEggThief an old family member actually cut ties with me because I did a degree and have never specifically used it in a job. The degree gave me many other skills that I HAVE used in jobs. She was furious that I was a SAHM for a few years as well, she said I had deprived someone else of that opportunity at university, someone else could have had my place and she didn’t want to associate with someone like me any longer! As it happens I now work in an industry where I do use it, but she doesn’t know that!

There is a big crisis in the NHS.

However, in the case of this one individual, the problem sounds like they either already knew they weren't going to qualify, or just realised that they weren't suited to the job. Otherwise, why on earth wouldn't you work for just a few more weeks to get the qualification and keep your options open?

@RisingMist That's always happened. When universities recruit for vocational degrees they know a number of people will drop out.

Problem is the number of drop outs both pre- and post- qualification is now too high.

Funnily enough I still have an account that can respond as was advised I was banned for being truthful as opposed to a ‘there, there’, echo machine ……

There will likely be a reason for this. I worked for decades in a clinical facing hospital role where I interviewed graduates for roles. We were always desperately understaffed but tbh some of this was due to budgetary restraints, not lack of applicants. However, even with shortages and need I often bumped applicants as if they can’t even restrain from showing their true colours (such as a rapey chauvinist) in a job interview, why on earth would I let them loose on patients and have to deal with the fallout! Had others who wanted the earth for employment, which someone newly qualified and more a liability than benefit, is hardly in a position to demand. Unfortunately, this sort of character/aptitude in real life aspect is not ascertained when people commence med degrees and training so at the end there are some duds irrespective of what exams they have passed and portfolio. Maybe there is a reason this person is applying to Tesco as a last option?

I'm a GP, I've copy and pasted the article:

GP
Search
MenuGP registrar applies to work for Tesco as general practice jobs evaporate

By Kimberley Hackett on the 4 June 2024

A GP registrar weeks from qualifying has applied for work with supermarket giant Tesco after being unable to find a job in general practice, GPonline has learned.

GP registrar applied to work for Tesco (Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty Images)

NHS England East Lancashire training programme director Dr Mark Dziobon told GPonline he was informed of the registrar's struggle to find work by a colleague in Bolton - and said the situation facing doctors about to complete GP training was the worst he had ever known.

He said: ‘I was told that a doctor who is about to exit GP training has looked for work and can’t find any vacancies within 45 minutes of where they live in Bolton and has approached every practice. He has a family so can’t move anywhere. He has had to apply to work in Tesco. In my opinion all stakeholders should know about the GP unemployment crisis.’

The Tesco role the registrar applied for is understood to be a non-medical one. Dr Dziobon added that he has heard from colleagues leading GP training across the country that registrars about to qualify as GPs are struggling to find vacancies, with the north of England particularly affected.

GP job shortage

His comments come after BMA GP registrars committee chair Dr Malinga Ratwatte told the UK LMC conference that around 4,000 GP registrars were expected to receive their certificate of completion of training (CCT) in August and would be 'entering a jobs market that is nearly non-existent in some parts of the country'.

The BMA has warned that thousands of GPs are currently struggling to find work because chronic underfunding has left practices unable to recruit.

Of 30 GP registrars in the final year of Dr Dziobon's training programme just one has work lined up - when in previous years he said all would have had jobs to go to or have been confident of finding one.

The one person who has found work completed training early and has been offered a salaried role - but had to move 20 miles away to find it.

Training GPs

Dr Dziobon said: ‘For the remaining 29, the biggest stress is that there are no jobs out there. They are very worried about it and they talk about it every week. The biggest stress used to be exams, but not now. In previous years, final year registrars would be confident of finding work or have a job lined up by now.

‘This is the worst I’ve ever known. We are asked every year to expand training numbers and we are always being told we are not training enough. This is the first time I have known with any certainty that trainees qualifying can’t find work.’

In Dr Dziobon’s cohort roughly 60% are international medical graduates (IMGs). IMG doctors usually need to a visa to remain in the UK after qualifying as a GP and have only a limited time window to find work with a practice that is a visa sponsor.

A recent GPonline freedom of information request found that only a quarter of practices in England are visa sponsors, despite more than half of GP registrars in England being IMGs.

GPs moving overseas

Dr Dziobon said: ‘We are training people who then can’t find work and then they have to go abroad because they can’t find work. Canada seems to be the country that is mentioned the most.’

He added that his cohort of registrars have told him that they have seen many jobs advertised for physician associates (PAs) in GP practices. ‘There is a real sense of resentment, not towards individuals but towards the PA role,’ Dr Dziobon said.

PA roles in general practice are funded by the £1.4bn additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) along with other roles including clinical pharmacists, paramedics and physiotherapists. The BMA and GPs have repeatedly called for ARRS funding to be made available for recruitment of GPs and practice nurses - and for core practice funding to be increased.

Practice funding has been slashed by more than 50% in real terms over the past decade and a half, GP leaders say - and the ‘derisory’ 1.9% uplift promised for 2024/25 is set to widen the financial black hole facing the profession.

Dr Dziobon said: ‘A lot of us feel quite upset about the situation. We feel like we are letting our young doctors in training down, it is distressing for a lot of colleagues.’

In March, GPonline exclusively revealed that some GP locums had to use a food bank because they were struggling to find work and another GP chose to work as an Uber driver after being unable to find salaried or locum work.

BMA sessional GP committee chair Dr Mark Steggles told the UK LMC conference last month that GP vacancies were receiving up to 80 applications - and BMA England GP committee chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer has said that ‘recent months have seen the emergence of a disturbing paradox: rising GP unemployment in the midst of a GP workforce crisis’.

The fully-qualified GP workforce in England has increased slighly over the past year, but remains 3% below the level in 2019.

An NHS England spokesperson said: 'The latest figures show an increase of 879 full-time GPs over the last year, while NHS teams locally continue to work with training programmes to support recruitment in certain areas based on local needs.'

The DHSC and the Conservatives have also been approached for a response.

You might do but you might not need them that much so they wouldn't make enough money to be viable as a business. There are online private GPs but they also aim to have NHS patients.

@MysticCatLady thank you for copying the body of the article.
Yes Greater Manchester is significantly affected with 40+ applicants for any post advertised. We advertised in October and had so many applicants. Some completely unsuitable just like @HoppingPavlova described and lots of previous locum GPs who now needed a salaried post because locum work drying up.
We recruited 2 really good GPs and I know if we need to recruit again we will be inundated with applicants.

I train GPs and now I'm thinking what's the point in putting all this effort in. I put a lot of effort in. Time in the evenings too. I emphasise the need to listen, to work with patients to tailor care to them, to treat everyone with respect even if you are being insulted (you can still respectfully ask a patient to leave your room if you are being called a c*!), the privilege we have of being a GP to the patient and their family, building a relationship. All the things that patients need and deserve. But the effort I put in is now benefitting patients in other countries. Canada and Norway are two counties my trainees have gone to or are going to go to.
The British pubic are losing out on well trained GPs and the ones who are left are getting burnt out.

This is true. My husband is a GP and there are not the jobs there anymore. He currently cannot get locum work for two days per week. Struggling to get a full time salaried role as the jobs aren’t there anymore. Currently had a part time salaried role. Locum rates are 20% lower than previously! Funding has been withdrawn and practices are having to hire cheaper alternatives to GPs (who all need supervision from GPs, which adds to the workload of existing GPs!)

Yes, this exactly!!!

Love the v posh GP who shouted this exact thing to little Rishi today. Who patronised her saying his dad was a GP so he knows more than her. A current GP.

Many many doctors are currently worrying about unemployment, not just GPs. Because the government won't fund them. But will pay more for a PA with a 2 year degree. Rather than a 5 year degree, 2 years of foundation jobs and many many exams.

As the government said, they just want to crush the BMA and don't care one fig about patient safety.

There is an absolute dearth of GP jobs available in huge areas of the country. Lots of final year trainees who have passed all their exams and assessment are due to qualify in August and there’s just not the jobs. Some are able to move to areas which struggle to recruit, but others can’t due to kids in school, partners jobs, caring responsibilities etc. I was the only applicant for the job I took 2 years ago. I’m leaving now and they had 44 applicants so far for my role - some from really far away. The newly qualified GPs aren’t getting a look in - and also they can’t do some of the private / remote / DWP jobs as you need to have been qualified x years to be eligible.
It’s an absolute shambles. Real terms finding has been cut, but practices are given money ring fenced for non-doctor clinicians like PAs - so they’re employing fewer GP locums and salaried doctors. Or just redirecting lots of people to 111 / urgent care when there are no appointments left.
Worse up north I’ve heard but the pattern seems to be spreading.

@WorriedMutha explained that much more eloquently than me!

Lots of newly qualified doctors still don't have jobs after medical school.

I've also heard of GP trainees reducing to part time training so that they are working for longer. This benefits the international medical graduates who need to get a salaried job with a tier 2 sponsor or risk being asked to leave the country if they haven't had enough years in a training post . Distressing if you have a family. I also read that some GPs are deliberately failing one of their exams so that they get extension to their training. Whether this is correct I do not know but it's extreme given they have to personally pay 1.5k for the exam every time they take it.

@mumsneedwine yes and that is a tragedy. And I use that word because to have studied hard for at least 5 years, racked up £100k debt, cost the taxpayer however much to subsidise training and then not get a job in the profession you have dedicated your life to going into is a tragedy. And for anyone saying "well they can do something else". They are a trained doctor. Why should they have to do something else? I really hope these medical students who are waiting to see if they have a job get one.

‘Work in Tesco’ doesn’t have quite the same meaning as ‘applied for a role with Tesco’ does it. The role could be anything, no need to jump to assumption it’s on checkout. My local Tesco has its own pharmacy for instance so clearly employs a qualified pharmacist.