Government plans to get more general practitioners working at weekends will not result in reduced demand for locums, say recruiters but more needs to be done to ensure they feel valued at work.

In a speech today, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt urged GPs to participate in plans for weekend opening, which involves groups of medical practices pooling together to share extended hours.

Commenting on the proposal Dr Peter Bouzyk, a director at doctors recruitment agency Doc2docs, told Recruiter he did not think weekend working will result in seven-day weeks for GPs so demand for locums would be maintained.

He said: “They may well make themselves available seven days a week as part of their seven-day commitment, depending on what government says they’ve got to do, but they couldn’t stretch their five-day working week to seven because then they wouldn’t be having a break.”

In return for seven-day opening of practices, Hunt also committed to 5,000 new GPs and another 5,000 support staff, including practice nurses, while financial incentives may be offered to those willing to work in the most deprived areas.

But Tawhid Juneja, managing director at medical recruiter Primary Care People, told Recruiter in order to encourage GPs to get on board with weekend working, more needs to be done to ensure they feel valued.

“Many GPs I speak with feel that they are not valued and haven’t been for years, and get limited support and funding from the government yet are still expected to deliver a service on very tight budgets,” he said.  

“If they did receive better funding and support, GPs could then take a pro-active approach rather than reactive which results in many surgeries having no choice but to overspend through pressure situations just to keep services running.”

Andrew Preston, managing director of temporary labour supplier, de Poel health+care, echoed those sentiments.

He said in a statement: “With general practice being the single biggest area of change in the NHS over next five years, instead of believing money is the answer to attracting more doctors, Jeremy Hunt firstly needs to address the general feeling of low morale and realise the value of a temporary workforce – which will now be more relied upon than ever – if government is to revolutionise the NHS as we know it today.”