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.

@Reugny not to mention the 5-6 years wasted salary for the doctor, who could have been earning at Tesco years ago.

@RaspberryRipple2 this is the comment in the article

The Tesco role the registrar applied for is understood to be a non-medical one

So likely to be a retail one. Maybe pharmacy but obviously not a pharmacist and wouldn't have the skills to be a dispenser.

What an utter fuck up, engineered by a bunch of politicians who have done next to nothing to earn their own salaries.

GP jobs aren't available through REED. Health recruitment is specialised. Those jobs will be possibly private sessional roles, not 'real' GP jobs.
There is an article in a recent British Medical Journal about the very real recruitment issues in GP. Drs are available, money is not, and practices are forced to employ and supervise minimally qualified allied healthcare staff to keep any kind of service running. There are no locum jobs, because there's no money to pay them.

According to this report there are 2,500 unemployed GPs in England - the issue being not that there is no demand for GPs and GP appointments, but that there is no money to pay the doctors due to government spending cuts.

Remember - Jeremy Hunt shafted the NHS in the six years that he was Health Minister (actually, he was Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, but seems to have paid no attention at all to the "Social Care" part of the job description). He is now the Chancellor - the man who has told the NHS that it is more important to balance the books than it is to treat patients. Think about that as you, your loved ones, your friends and neighbours suffer ever-increasing waits for treatment in queues that are getting longer every day.

Furious doctor floors Rishi Sunak with five-word statement - but PM only laughs - Mirror Online

I did a generic search that came up with multiple medical employment sites, some of which are also advertising private GP jobs (the NHS is not the only employer in the UK) or jobs for GPs in allied sectors and roles. I mentioned ‘REED’ generically to mean ‘recruitment agency websites’. I appreciate that there are job shortages in the NHS, but I also can see that there are more than 15 jobs within a 20mins drive of my postcode, all at local NHS practices. There were also many in the private sector. Ie there ARE jobs other than Tescos. Unless you are calling me a liar?

So some of the issue has to be with the quality and experience of the candidates and their willingness/ability to work in the areas where the jobs are being advertised (whether that be due to demographics or the cost of living in preferred areas). WRT to the OP’s headline case, I’m inclined to think that there is an issue with the individual concerned, but as we can’t read the article to obtain the data, we cannot make any educated or informed theories.

Leaving this thread now, so please don’t bother tagging me in reply.

There are not many reasons. Many of my GP friends cannot get jobs. It is because the government is funding for PA roles so why would a GP surgery pay themselves for a GP when the government is paying for them to employ PA's.

It is part of the government system to dismantle the NHS and always has been. To create a lower standard of care so that people will move onto private treatment.

Exactly this! It's absolutely disgusting and has been a carefully planned procedure. There was a build up of articles a year ago about GP's not wanting to work full time. This is all just to feed the public so that when there are no GP appointments, people presume it is because GP's do not want to work.

x.com/carolvorders/status/1799178870664360139?s=12

The public are being fed lies and have been for years
'GPs work part time'. That's a 30-40 hour week for a GP working 3 days

'A&E is busy because patients can't get to see a GP'. There are no more attendances at A&E than pre pandemic. The problem is the exit is blocked - ie no ward beds due to social pressures

'GPs don't see anyone now' Yes they do but practices are trying to meet demand by opting for digital solutions like e-consult. So a GP will spend all day reading those (often >100) and allocate the most appropriate appointment based on need. That may not be what a patient wants.

'We will increase GP appointments'. They've increased pharmacy appointments and have funded additional (non GP) staff to provide appointments. In my experience the non GP staff are working incredibly hard on other stuff like cholesterol management, making sure medicines are monitored, blood pressures are up to date. (All mandated by NHS England and targets set for GP to achieve to be able to receive funding to pay for staff) That doesn't mean more appointments for patients to see a GP with new symptoms and complex chronic illness.

'We will roll out digital telephony'. How does that increase appointments. It means easier access on the phone but doesn't create appointments.

Meanwhile the funding uplift for a GP practice this year is 1.9%. That doesn't even cover the NMW uplift. So what do savvy businesses do to make sure they don't go into the red or indeed close? They look at costs, and staffing is one of the greatest costs. Hence salaried GPs having hours cut, not being replaced or being made redundant. Hence the scramble in many areas for the few jobs there are and newly qualified, excellent GPs who previously could locum if they couldn't get a permanent job, being out of work.

Do you really think your bit of googling means you know more than, for instance, the BMJ?

Or are you just a Tory supporter desperate to try to minimise yet another area of government incompetence?

Given the trouble our local practice had in getting new GPs, there are special circumstances at work here.

@GentlemanJohnny some areas are struggling getting GPs but I agree not all. Rural, coastal, inner city might be struggling. 18 months ago we struggled. 7 months ago we were inundated. If we advertise now I can guarantee there will 40+ applications.

Last year the local GP trainers were asking if anyone had a trainee finishing who wanted a job. This year the GP trainers are asking if any practices have a vacancy for their trainee.

It's been a very rapid change - I think in part the 2 years uplift of NMW (which I agree with) and funding not keeping up with inflation.

This issue of there not being sufficient money is not confined to GPs. It also applies to nurses and other medical and technical staff in NHS hospitals.

It is one thing to read that the NHS has over 100,000 vacancies, but there is no publicity about how these cannot be filled because there is no budget to pay for the staff who would fill these vacancies.

Hunt has insisted that balancing the books is more important than treating patients. This means that hospitals are actually having to cut back on staff - e.g. by reducing nurses hours, or by not recruiting to fill a post when someone leaves. This is bad for patients, and bad for the remaining staff who have more work to do with fewer resources.

And all the time the waiting lists grow longer and the time spent on the list gets longer, and over 10% of the population in England is now waiting for an appointment or treatment - in the 5th or 6th wealthiest economy on the planet.

Same at my doctors

@Havanananana yes I expect that hospitals and community NHS trusts have been affected by the same budget constraints. Increased NMW (a lot of NHS workers are on this so at £11.44 they are being paid about £4-5 less than the junior doctors) which means putting up wages for everyone else, on the background of increasing costs for running a hospital. And no significant increase in budget to continue the same service. Many hospital trusts are in financial crisis, millions overspent so they are cutting back on staff and hiring cheaper staff.

Really tragic for younger doctors who have qualified more recently, and who have been shafted all ways, including with the student loan changes and the plan 2 pay scale (effective from last year) as well as these career difficulties. No wonder they are so upset, and shocked at how things are turning out for them. All whilst navigating endless weekend and night shifts.

https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/analysis/special-investigations/the-rise-of-the-physician-associates/what-does-the-influx-of-physician-associates-mean-for-gp-recruitment/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2VwzIsIaDeFgXrZrORvTCWnkZO2f80y5TCzyGnO9QQiPYLLanW82BLECEaemmAdsQjjlSHP-Gk9TjbG1oQCoWGvgP42eI-jUayj8biMgH7xrM9XnJbSHaRITEo40zbI7KHTj9eA2OYd3SCtZp5Ab

Not sure if that link works or whether there is a firewall. But it does explain a lot more about the pressure in general practice.
Looks like in the future if you want to see a family GP you will need your go private.

I hope the funding issue gets sorted soon. It's unbelievable that so many GPs can't get work while at the same time people can't get a GP appointment. There is not enough publicity about it and as is clear from some posts on this thread people are reluctant to believe it is true.

Many GP practices have funding that they are allowed to use for additional roles. So Nurse prescribers, dietitians, pharmacists etc. They are not allowed to use that money to employ GPs. Even though every single person working in the practice knows that is what is desperately needed. It is ridiculous.

Your post is misleading. The story is about a single GP trainee. Who knows what their circumstances are. Change the title so it removes the lie that GPs plural are working in Tesco.

It wouldn't be lying to say that many are not employed as GPs at the moment due to the lack of jobs though.

Agree it's one GP whose story has been highlighted but there are multiple examples in the medical press of fully qualified GPs working in non medical jobs to pay the bills.
The article linked below discussed the potential fate of the GP trainees finishing this summer. There is no longer a guarantee of a substantial GP post on qualification any more.

It's not just GPs. Not enough jobs for F2s to progress so many facing an uncertain future in August. And newly qualified graduates still don't have jobs which start in 5 weeks time.
V little locum work.

Again and again I say it. We have enough doctors, they don't have enough jobs. If they did the waiting times would disappear!