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Unusual perks: Want a career to fit around your life?

Written by: Jennifer Jackson
Published on: 6 Mar 2017

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Alex Winehouse, recruitment consultant at The GP & Nurse Practitioner Agency, tells us about his alternative approach to recruitment and why it pays to pursue a career with unique perks

The GP & Nurse Practitioner Agency is a specialist recruitment agency which was established in 2015 and now employs over 300 GPs and nurse practitioners throughout the UK. Its consultants have decades of experience in recruiting top medical professionals.

The agency is currently recruiting for a range of locum GP roles, full-time GP jobs and ad hoc GP cover for surgeries all over the UK - including locations throughout London, Sussex and the North East of England.

Earn a competitive hourly rate - all of it, on time

Fed up of agencies eating into your pay? The GP & Nurse Practitioner Agency disagrees with taking a cut from your daily rate and believes it’s unnecessary to make you wait weeks to get paid.

As Winehouse explains: “When you work as a GP or nurse practitioner with us you earn by the hour, not by the day. Our doctors typically earn £85 per hour so if you work 10 hours a day you get the full £850 - we don’t take a percentage of this. 

“We also have 24-hour payroll service which means you get paid within two days of submitting your timesheet because we appreciate you want to be paid regularly. My extensive experience has taught me this is the right way to treat GPs and nurses.”

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Save on shopping, outings and new kit for your surgery

The GP & Nurse Practitioner Agency runs a loyalty scheme to ‘give something back’ to GPs. For every hour you work you get a pound back. When you accumulate enough points you can exchange them for vouchers - anything from shopping to meals out. Recommend a GP or nurse and you also earn a point for every hour they work, for the entirety of the working relationship. So if they work £20 hours per week, that’s £1000 per year. Clients also earn points for booking with the agency.

Winehouse comments: “We introduced this loyalty scheme because we want to give something back and we believe it’s important to look after GPs, nurses and practices. We like to do things differently, not robotically.

“Many GP practices are lucky to get a Christmas card from their recruitment agency, whereas we truly give them an incentive to book their locums with us. We’re more reasonably priced and on top of that we give them loyalty points for booking with us, which they can exchange for something that will benefit them, such as a new piece of kit for their surgery or a voucher for a team outing. We can even organise something bespoke for them if they wish!”

A flexible role to suit your lifestyle

The agency is currently recruiting for GPs throughout the UK, including a choice of flexible part-time roles and ad hoc sessions to help you strike a good work/life balance.

Winehouse explains: “Our whole ethos is to provide a personal touch - we match GPs with roles that suit their lifestyle and meet the needs of practices. Many of the surgeries we work with have regular daily slots which they want to fill three months in advance. We also deal with maternity cover, doctors returning to work after maternity leave and doctors who come to us because they want someone else to take over from them if they’re moving on.”

Future outlook: opt for locum work

Winehouse concludes that the future outlook for GP careers looks positive: “Huge investment will be pumped into GPs as the NHS continues to drive down A&E waiting times. There is plenty of work for GPs and this is set to rise further with the increase in extended working hours.

“To earn the maximum you can, opt for locum work. Locums are in a good position to negotiate start times, finish times and duties. So if you need some flexibility to fit around childcare, for example, locuming is a good option as GP surgeries should be willing to structure your working day around you.”

From the perspective of a locum GP:

“I have been working as a locum GP for The GP and Nurse Practitioner agency for the last 6 months, I find the flexibility extremely useful as it fits in with my other responsibilities. Payroll is efficient and they pay weekly which is really important.

"They have a choice of walk-in services, GP surgery based primary care and out of hours, they also have the most amazing loyalty bonus scheme and I would recommend any potential candidate or client to enquire to them about this.” - Locum GP 

Browse and apply for a locum GP job with The GP and Nurse Practitioner Agency