Top tips for retaining UK GPs

UK GPs are hardworking and are an asset to any clinical team, but with demand for them rising how do you make your workplace their best option?

What are their main reasons for moving to Australia?

When moving to Australia, the most commonly asked about areas of Australian General Practice are based on the reasons they are leaving the NHS and it is important to keep these in mind.

Studies in the UK have shown that the main reasons UK GPs leave general practice are:

• Overwhelming workload
• Administration tasks
• Stress
• The level of After Hours work required
• No incentive payments or low salary
• Not enough time allowed for educational or training opportunities

If you have UK GPs on your team, the more you can counter these challenges the better retention rates you will have.

Collaborative teams

UK GPs are used to working within a team in the UK, some clinics in Australia do not have the same focus. Working in a supportive and collaborative team is one of the top reasons a GP will choose your clinic. To support this atmosphere in your clinic:

• encourage regular clinical meetings and case study sharing with the team.
• have quarterly team building nights which may just be a simple team dinner, but this can have a great impact on the satisfaction of the GPs

Have a great induction

A key element to supporting UK GPs, which has been said repeatedly is to provide a great induction when they first commence. If they have not worked in Australia before:

• make sure to focus on MBS items and billing training.
• Have a lead GP chat to them about the common medication names
• Always also make sure you are clear with who they can ask questions if needed.

Can you set yourself apart from other clinics?

UK GPs often get multiple job offers when they decide to make the move. So is there anything you can provide which will set you apart from other clinics?

• Support for professional development activities will help build a great sense of support for your GPs.
• Think about supporting CPD activities that could be run on site
• Allowing leave for conferences and courses that overall will benefit the clinic as a whole
• Allow 6-8 weeks of leave per annum so they can travel back to the UK to visit family

A great Practice Manager is key

A great practice manager is key to GP job satisfaction, the PM is there to provide supports and help UK GPs settle into the practice.

What do great PMs do to support their GPs?

• Have a regular catch up with the GPs to see how they are going and what else they need for support
• Do not pressure the GP to see a particular number of patients per hour
• Involve the GPs in major business plans
• Allow them the ability to provide suggestions on services
• Support them to develop a specialization
• Provide feedback on patient and billing numbers

If you are interested to know more or would like to look into recruiting GPs from the UK, please contact Alecto on 1800 604 332 or info@alecto.com.au

Sources: https://bmcfampract.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-015-0363-1

http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/2/e010592