Primary Care People insures to get more GPs in the house
18 July 2016
A medical recruitment company has launched a free insurance product for GPs on its books that the firm’s managing director expects will ease the current shortage of GPs in the NHS.
Fri, 22 July 2016 | By Colin Cottell
Tawhid Juneja (pictured), MD of Primary Care People, told Recruiter that based on interest from GPs so far, he said he expects 500 GPs to work an extra 20 hours a week or 260,000 hours a year, equivalent to 125 full-time posts, as a result of having access to the free insurance. “It is all about increasing the capacity of the workforce,” he said.
Juneja said the problem with existing indemnity insurance was it put off GPs from working at full capacity. He explained that because existing insurance providers considered out-of-hours working high risk, this significantly increased the cost of indemnity insurance, which had led GPs to reduce their out-of-hours working.
With premiums having doubled in the past three or four years, Juneja said the cost of indemnity insurance ranges from £6k a year for standard hours cover to as high as £40k a year for insurance that includes out-of-hours cover.
Juneja accepted that not charging a premium meant the company was taking a financial hit in terms of lower margins. “We are doing it on the basis that we are able to increase capacity in our commercial organisation – if we can have a greater volume of candidates working for us, then it makes financial sense,” he explained.
Juneja said he saw the new insurance product as a part of the solution to the problem of GP shortages, alongside other measures, such as bringing in GPs from Europe and measures to make general practice desirable again.
FROM AUGUST'S RECRUITER MAGAZINE
A medical recruitment company has launched a free insurance product for GPs on its books that the firm’s managing director expects will ease the current shortage of GPs in the NHS.
The new indemnity insurance product, which covers doctors against claims for medical malpractice and negligence, was launched at the beginning of July.Tawhid Juneja (pictured), MD of Primary Care People, told Recruiter that based on interest from GPs so far, he said he expects 500 GPs to work an extra 20 hours a week or 260,000 hours a year, equivalent to 125 full-time posts, as a result of having access to the free insurance. “It is all about increasing the capacity of the workforce,” he said.
Juneja said the problem with existing indemnity insurance was it put off GPs from working at full capacity. He explained that because existing insurance providers considered out-of-hours working high risk, this significantly increased the cost of indemnity insurance, which had led GPs to reduce their out-of-hours working.
With premiums having doubled in the past three or four years, Juneja said the cost of indemnity insurance ranges from £6k a year for standard hours cover to as high as £40k a year for insurance that includes out-of-hours cover.
Juneja accepted that not charging a premium meant the company was taking a financial hit in terms of lower margins. “We are doing it on the basis that we are able to increase capacity in our commercial organisation – if we can have a greater volume of candidates working for us, then it makes financial sense,” he explained.
Juneja said he saw the new insurance product as a part of the solution to the problem of GP shortages, alongside other measures, such as bringing in GPs from Europe and measures to make general practice desirable again.
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