It is a fact of life that people can get ill, and that includes people working in professions such as doctors, dentists, vets, opticians, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and so on: they are not immune.
However, it is not just sickness that results in people taking time off work. They take holidays, too, and people might be called for jury service. They might have to take time off work to look after a family member who is ill or has had an accident. They might suffer an accident themselves. Bereavement can cause people mental issues, and they may need time to sort themselves out.
If you run a GP’s practice, you may have a team member who hands in his or her notice and you then have to find a replacement which you cannot do at short notice.
Of course, if you are something such as a self-employed plumber or gardener while taking time off for sickness or holidays means that you won’t be earning any money, you can easily shut down for a couple of weeks. However, if you are a doctor, vet, or dentist, for instance, you can’t just shut down your practice, because you still have to provide the services that your patients or clients need. You cannot put a sign up in the window that says: “Closed for holidays”.
There are some interesting figures about absence from work, too. According to the website Personnel Today, XpertHR conducted its’ 14th annual survey into sickness rates and absence costs and found that the median rate of sickness absence in 2019 was 2.7% of working time, up from 2.5% in 2018. That worked out at 6.4 days absence per employee, up from 5.6 days the previous year.
The authors said that the median cost of sickness absence was £568 per employee. However, this is not likely to be accurate because 42% of employers did not know if their cost data was correct, and only 16% said that it definitely was. While respondents included the salaries of individuals on sick leave, few counted the cost of overtime, reduced performance, service, or missed business opportunities. And, of course, those figures are all before Covid-19 struck.
Furthermore, the figures quoted are across all types of business. In the medical profession, salaries are far higher and bear no relation to the average. Pay rates for locums in the NHS in 2018 were £74.74 per hour for all doctors and £101.21 for consultants. This is why, if you are in the medical sector you need to invest in locum insurance to cover you in the event of having to call upon a locum at short notice.
According to Wikipedia, the NHS has 3,500 locums working in hospitals on any given day, so the amount of money involved in that alone is considerable. On top of that, there are a further 17,000 locum doctors working in GP practices. 80% of hospital locum doctors are supplied by private agencies through a national framework agreement the NHS has with 51 such agencies. The remaining 20% comes from other agencies outside the agreement.
On the other hand, most GP locums work as freelancers who are self-employed. They provide a quick way for medical employers to fill positions that are temporarily vacant or for which there is no long-term funding available. Locum GPs are expected to be flexible, adaptable, resourceful, professional, quick to establish relationships, familiar with different IT systems, and able to independently manage risks.
Not only do you have to pay more for a locum than you do for other members of staff, but it can cause resentment from other staff members who are being paid less for doing the same job.
At Approachable Finance Ltd., we provide independent specialist advice for the medical sector, and we can help to find you the right locum insurance for your particular practice. Our market-beating policy is underwritten by Amtrust Lloyds of London. It has only a 12-month pre-existing condition clause, whereas to the best of our knowledge all other insurance plans have a two or three-year pre-existing condition clause during which no claim can be made on a condition that has occurred in that period.
